Jaune the White Dragon Slayer
by lxXxJerBearxXxl
Summary: Jaune has the powers of a White Dragon Slayer, which he carries with pride. He has a rough past, but a bright future ahead. Watch as he makes friends, faces new and old enemies, and proudly using his powers for the sake of others! EARLY CHAPTERS ARE REWRITTEN. ALSO NOW RATED M
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own RWBY or Fairy Tail. Not sure why this is important on a non-profitable website, but whatever.**

At the moment, he hated being a dragon slayer.

Don't be mistaken, he liked his semblance, he really did, but in his current situation he hated his powers. Why? Because he was stuck on a flying vehicle. He had heard of people like him who had similar powers, and suffered the same weakness. He'd heard rumors and stories of others like him, and how they had the same odd weakness that Jaune had. He had yet to meet one of these Dragon Slayers, but he was bound to run into one at some point, for better or for worse.

"This is totally not worth it." He said to himself, his voice slightly echoing from the trashcan he was hunched over. He was dreading this part of his trip to Beacon, which was riding aboard a large Bullhead As he lifted his head to gaze at the multitude of students around him, he saw each of them displaying a different expression and emotion. Some were quite excited, some were incredibly nervous, and a few just stared out of the windows with calm expressions. He heard a few comments of him vomiting with his enhanced hearing. They thought that they were being discrete, but Jaune could still hear them. He knew he wouldn't hear the end of this for a while. "Lucky bastards." He muttered, although it's not like he could be mad at any of them, it was just the luck of the draw of how he got his abilities, and people were entitled to their own opinions of him. He'd just have to change them with his actions.

As soon as the dust plane had landed, he quickly stumbled his way to the nearest exit, nearly knocking everyone on the way and apologizing with every person he ran into. Once he was off of the plane he fell forward to be accepted once more to the grounds embrace. "Land, oh how I've missed you." He stayed there until he noticed the odd looks he was getting from his soon to be peers. Instantly, he stood up and walked away from his location, unsure on where to go exactly. As he was walking away, he noticed a white haired girl complaining to a girl who strangely resembled red riding hood about the usage of dust. The girl in white was shaking a bottle of red dust, which was leaking out of the bottle. Jaune could smell the dusts almost spicy scent.

"That's not good." He said hastily. He knew enough about dust to know how dangerous uncontained red dust was. He was about to intervene when the girl in red sneezed, causing the red dust to ignite. Jaune chuckled at the girl in white's reaction and her soot covered face. He also felt bad about the girl in red. Before their argument went on further, a third person joined the fray. She wore mostly black.

"It's like everyone has a freakin' color scheme." Jaune whispered. Soon enough, the girl in white and the girl in black had left the girl in red to collapse on the ground in defeat. "Nobody should get treated like that on the first day." Jaune said with a slight frown before shifting his expression to what he hoped seemed like a welcoming grin.

He walked over to the girl and outstretched his hand. "Hey, I'm Jaune!" he said with his toothy smile, hoping to cheer her up.

She hesitantly responded and grabbed the offered hand.

"Ruby." She stated with a small smile. Before Jaune could say anything else Ruby pointed out, "Aren't you the guy who threw up on the ship?"

Jaune frowned at this. Seriously, someone had to point that out already?

"Yeah, well it's a sort of side effect that comes with my semblance. I have severe motion sickness because of it." He explained vaguely. He knew she would ask, and it would be easier just to say what he was, but Jaune had a flare for the dramatic. It was a bit of a guilty pleasure.

Ruby was curious, "How does that work?" Ruby asked. She'd never heard of a semblance with a drawback. Some semblances were flawed, but that was usually due to hoe the semblance operated. Motion sickness wasn't normally a flaw, it was an outright weakness.

Jaune shrugged and smiled, "Beats me, but as long as I'm not on a vehicle, I'm a forced to be reckoned with!" Jaune struck a pose, throwing his fists into the air and spreading his legs, causing Ruby to laugh.

They began to walk silently when Ruby spoke up, "So I got this thing." She said offhandedly as she let her scythe completely form, causing Jaune to jump back in surprise.

"Jeez, that's scary!" He shrieked, but cleared his throat as he heard his own voice reach such a high octave, "So you have a scythe?" he asked nervously, trying to regain his dignity.

"It's also a customizable, high impact sniper rifle." Ruby said proudly.

Jaune was dumbfounded, "whaaa," was his intelligent response.

"it's also a gun." Ruby said with humor. She directed her attention back to Jaune. "So what do you have?" She said with surprisingly large interest.

Jaune was still slightly surprised with her weapon's appearance in comparison to her own, causing him to fumble with his weapon. Jaune let out an embarrassed laugh and scratched the back of his head. Ruby just waited patiently, not pt off by his odd behavior. Jaune took a deep, calming breath to regain his bearings. Juane drew his sword from its sheath, then activated his sheath, turning it into a large hite shield.

"Well my shield absorbs any damage I block with it and converts it into white dust. My sword has a similar effect, but it creates white dust with the more damage I deal with my sword. The white dust is then turned into a white liquid that gets dispensed from these capsules." Jaune pointed under the straps of his shield, showing three capsules, and then unscrewed the bottom of his sword, revealing three more capsules. "This liquid is what I use to… empower myself." He finished.

Ruby was in awe, "That's so cool!" she yelled with child-like glee, but then looked confused, "Wait, so how does white dust liquid empower you?" she asked. She wasn't very well-versed with dust, but she knew the basics. Dust was used for weaponry and as an energy source. She'd never heard of it directly empowering someone before.

Jaune smiled proudly and pointed at himself, "It generates aura that I use with my semblance."

Ruby thought for a second, and then asked, "So what is your semblance? I forgot to ask."

Jaune kept a wide smile on his face. "I'm a White Dragon Slayer!"

Ruby just stared at him, trying to comprehend the words that he just used to form his self-proclaimed title. "A what?" she asked, dumbfounded.

Jaune figured that this would require a bit of an explanation, he really couldn't expect most people to understand him right away.

"Well I'm what is known as a White Dragon Slayer. Although I can't go into great detail on how I obtained my powers, I can say my powers are more like a gift from my father." Jaune knew he couldn't just say his father was a DRAGON. Most sane people barely believed in dragons. Jaune didn't know who his real parents were. He only had Weisslogia to look up to when he was young, and that was enough.

Ruby thought about what he said, but decided that she would question him later on the loose explanation. She didn't have the right to pry on it anyways "Well we better get to the main building or we'll miss the orientation." Ruby said while finally retracting her weapon.

Jaune followed suit, his shield reverting back into a scabbard. Jaune slid his sword back into the scabbard in one smooth motion. "That sounds good, let's go!" Jaune began to lead the way with Ruby close behind.

"How do you know where you're going?" Ruby asked curiously. Beacon was basically a maze to her, and they didn't even hand out maps!

"I can smell a large group of people over in this direction." Jaune stated. Ruby just smiled and laughed lightly.

'This guy is just full of surprises isn't he?' Ruby thought to herself.

Once they entered the orientation room, Ruby was called over by a girl in yellow. The girl in yellow actually looked familiar. Jaune recognized her as one of the ones who commented on his air sickness.

'Seriously? What's with these girls and colors!' Jaune thought.

Ruby looked back at Jaune, "Hey that's my sister, I gotta go. I'll talk to you after the orientation!"

Before he could respond, Ruby was gone. Jaune shrugged, "Now who am I going to talk to?" Jaune said with defeat in his voice. Jaune just stood awkwardly, waiting for something, ANYTHING to happen. Unfortunately nothing happened, causing his boredom and loneliness to increase. He looked back at Ruby, only to see her talking to the girl in white again. He used his advanced hearing to eavesdrop on their conversation, but he only caught the ending of the girl in white's sarcasm.

"Yeah, and we can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys like tall, blonde and scraggly over there." She finished while pointing her thumb at Jaune, who was confused as to how their conversation had reached a topic like that. 'Cute? Well I've never been categorized like that before. Although I've barely even been around that many people, so I guess anything can happen. ' Jaune thought. He then heard the sound of a microphone being turned on. He looked over to the stage only to see Professor Ozpin.

'Hey it's Ozpin!' Jaune mentally cheered. Finally, someone he actually knew! As Ozpin began his speech, Jaune just stared in deep thought at Ozpin, the person who helped him learn right from wrong. Jaune was extremely thankful that Ozpin had saved him from possible self-destruction. Once Ozpin finished his speech and Glynda told everyone to prepare for the next day, Jaune looked at the girl in white again before thinking of a conversation starter. He walked over to her and said, "I'm a natural blonde you know!" She just sighed, clearly annoyed with Jaune's entrance. She walked off before he could say anything else.

'Well that wasn't the reaction I was hoping for,' he thought, and then shrugged, 'I'll just try again later.'

Later that night, all of the students were gathered in one large room for the night. Jaune was slightly concerned by this. "Well this seems… unethical." Jaune whispered to himself. He liked to sleep in private, no matter what. That's how most of his life was, secluded from others, and now he's sharing one room with a ton of people.

'This is irritating,' Jaune thought. He stood there awkwardly, fidgeting in his spot. 'How is everyone comfortable with this?'

Jaune didn't know what to do. He wasn't entirely comfortable with his body. His chest had two large scars cutting at an angle down the left side, and his stomach had three medium-sized, but long cuts in horizontal lines. He unstrapped his armor and slid a hand under his shirt, feeling the scars. 'I was lucky to only have these scars when I fought him,' Jaune thought. He then scowled. 'I will have my revenge for what he did to my father. I swear it.' he thought with malice.

Jaune was snapped out of his internal venting when he noticed several eyes on him. Jaune felt slightly colder than he had before, and unfortunately he noticed why. Jaune was unaware that that he had taken off his sweatshirt and undershirt in his trance, leaving his bare torso exposed. He also noticed the room fell silent. He could hear the whispers from the other students. Some were looking at him subtly, only glancing at him a few times to see every part of him. Others were openly staring, like the girl in yellow he saw with Ruby. She was smiling, which started to creep him out. 'Crap crap crap crap crap!' he mentally screamed. Immediately he slid into his sleeping bag, hoping to be left alone. Jaune mentally cursed himself for his stupidity.

Thankfully, nobody approached him. He was overjoyed by this. He got comfortable in his sleeping bag and began to focus on other conversations. He could hear the girl in yellow and the girl in black exchange names. 'So their names are Yang and Blake, cool'. He casually listened to their conversation, and learned a little bit about Blake and Ruby. He enjoyed hearing Ruby's inspiration to become a hunter, so innocent yet so… for the lack of a better word, inspiring. He found that he was about to fall asleep to their lovely conversation before Yang got Ruby worked up, which apparently pissed off the girl in white. She told them to be quiet, which somehow led to each of them telling each other to be quite. Jaune inwardly groaned, 'This crazy crap better not continue in the morning.'

**I'm rewriting the early chapters. Looking back at these is actually painful and I want more people to read this. I looked at the graph of how many people read this and it dropped a lot more than I wanted it to and now I see why.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm fixing the early chapters. I'm not changing the storyline.**

Jaune woke up with a groan. Someone was causing quite a bit of noise, considering the fact that Jaune was a heavy sleeper. He scanned the room to find out what caused the early morning disturbance. The answer he found was an orange haired girl repeating 'it's morning!' while practically teleporting around a slightly annoyed black haired man. Jaune sighed and stood up and stretched his muscles, causing his body to crack and pop. Once he felt that he had woken his body up after a few stretches, he quickly got dressed, did his morning bathroom routines, and went down to the cafeteria. He sat down next to the same black haired man from earlier, who was still being spoken to by the overly energetic girl. She had a pancake in her mouth, so her words were muffled. The black haired man just endured his partner's unrelenting banter. Jaune decided not to intervene for the time being. Jaune finished his breakfast and slowly made his way to the locker room, just enjoying his walk in silence and peace.

Jaune finally entered the locker room, only to be met with the same unending banter from the orange haired girl.

"Nora?" the man said. This was actually the first time Jaune heard the man speak, but the now dubbed 'Nora' had been talking all morning.

"Yes Ren?" Nora asked innocently. She acted similar to a small child, but jaune wouldn't comment on it. She was here for a reason to, after all. She could be just as dangerous as he was.

"I don't think sloths make a lot of noise." Ren responded calmly, slipping his green pistols into his sleeves smoothly. Jaune actually thought that Ren's sleeves ate the guns for a moment.

Jaune was extremely confused, 'what kind of conversation did I just walk in on?' Jaune thought. Jaune quickly made his way deeper into the locker room. He pulled out his locker paper as he walked. He stared at the paper, and then started to panic.

"Ridiculous! There's no way I put my gear in locker six three six yesterday. I would've remembered having to count that high. Why does this have to happen today." Jaune groaned again, he felt like he was going to do that quite a bit today. Having literally no idea where he was going, he shrugged and folded the paper up and shoved it in his pocket. He turned around to see the girl in white sporting one of the most disturbing grins he had ever seen. He scratched his head and slowly approached her. He hesitated though. He still wasn't entirely comfortable with talking to her, he had already tried and it only seemed to make her hate him more. He turned back to try and his locker again, only to feel a cold presence behind him. He turned his head to see the girl in white scowling at him, with a red haired girl right behind her.

"What do you think you're doing?" the girl in white asked.

Jaune smiled slightly, "Um… walking?" The girl behind the girl in white chuckled. Somehow this caused the girl in white to scowl even more.

"How dare you not show any sort of respect to an heiress, as well as a celebrity!" She pointed at herself, then the girl behind her, who merely waved politely.

Jaune raised an eyebrow, "What are you even the heiress of? And I honestly don't know who that woman is." He pointed at the red haired girl. She stepped in front of the girl in white and outstretched her hand.

"Well then, my name is Pyrrha Nikos." the red-haired girl said. Jaune went to shake Pyrrhas' hand, when the girl in white stepped between them.

"How do you not know who either of us are?!" She yelled. Jaune scratched the back of his head again.

"Well I know who she is now, she's Pyrrha Nikos. And so far that's all I know." Pyrrha laughed again. Weiss kept her scowl.

"Fine! Since you don't know, I will grant you the opportunity to know who I am, I am Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the Schnee dust company." She praised herself. Weiss waited for Jaune to respond with some shoe kissing or something, but Jaune's expression didn't change in the slightest. To Weiss, he seemed unimpressed. In reality, Jaune didn't care. He knew of the Schnee Dust Company, but that wasn't important to him.

Jaune outstretched his hands, "I'm Jaune Arc, pleased to meet you two." Pyrrha shook his hand while Weiss batted his other hand away lightly. Jaune felt an awkward silence forming, so he decided to change the topic.

"So I've been hearing rumors about teams, either of you want to team up with me?" Jaune offered. Weiss looked slightly disgusted while Pyrrha smiled again.

Weiss spoke up, "Jaune was it? Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" She asked, pointing at Pyrrha.

"If I remember correctly, I believe I am talking to the one and only Pyrrha Nikos who you claimed to be a celebrity." Jaune stated. Weiss pinched the bridged of her nose in clear annoyance.

"Well do you have any idea WHAT she is famous for?" Jaune cupped his chin with his hand, thinking for a moment.

"Should I?" He asked. He tried not to offend Pyrrha, but it was kinda fun to mess with Weiss. Weiss seemed pretty up tight, so maybe some teasing would make her a bit looser and more friendly. That was his logic, at least.

"Pyrrha graduated top of her class in Sanctum." Weiss said proudly, Jaune simply held a blank stare. Why did Weiss seem proud for another person's accomplishment?

"She won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row." Jaune still stared. Weiss was getting even more annoyed at the blonde's ignorance.

"She's on the front of every Pumpkin Petes Marshmallow Flakes Box!" she yelled while flailing her arms in frustration.

Jaune thought for a moment then said, "That's interesting. You must be pretty famous to be so well known, especially by an heiress." Jaune didn't really eat cereal, so he wasn't familiar with the brand.

Weiss crossed her arms, "So after hearing all of this, do you really think you're in a position to ask HER to be on your team?" she asked.

Jaune shrugged, "Why not, we're all just students here after all." Pyrrha felt happy to have someone finally see her as a fellow student and not some sort of prodigy for once.

"I think you'd make a great team leader Jaune." She smiled warmly at him. Jaune wasn't sure where that had come from, but he decided to just role with it. A compliment is a compliment after all.

Jaune smiled back, "You think so? I honestly can't see that happening. I've never led anyone anywhere, well except when I led Ruby to the orientation room." He said. He turned back to Weiss.

"So how 'bout it, wanna be on my team?" Jaune asked. Weiss seemed to take offence to this.

Weiss looked away, "You're too close, Pyrrha, a little help please?" Before Jaune could respond, he felt something stick into his sweatshirt and send him flying backwards, he heard the words 'I'm sorry' before he found himself stuck to a locker. Weiss slowly walked past him with Pyrrha right behind her. She retrieved her javelin from his hoody.

"It was nice meeting you." She said with a smile.

"Likewise," he responded in a daze. He heard new footsteps approach him and heard a familiar voice, "Having some trouble there ladykiller?" He looked up to see Yang and Ruby, the latter holding an outstretched hand.

"It's Dragon Slayer actually, and I think I have a concussion." He said as he grabbed Ruby's hand and lifted himself up.

"Dragon slayer huh? Wow Ruby, I thought you were kidding." Yang said.

"I told you! I think it's cool though. It makes him sound like a knight or something." Ruby said as she smiled.

Jaune looked at Yang, "We haven't formally met yet, I'm Jaune Arc." He outstretched his hand towards Yang, who took it with a firm grip.

"Yang Xiao Long, pleased to meet you 'Dragon Slayer.'" She responded in a mocking tone.

Jaune gave her a serious stare, "That's what I am, is that a problem?" He hated being disrespected by anyone, especially when it was towards the thing he treasured the most.

Yang kept her smile, "Whoa there, you're a feisty one aren't you?" She batted her eyelashes. Ruby shrugged, she should've seen this coming. Ruby knew that Yang was a bit of a flirt.

Ruby leaned towards Jaune and whispered, "Don't humor her, she's just teasing you. Sorry if she hurt your feelings or something."

Jaune nodded in understanding, "Don't worry about it, it's just I don't like it when my powers are mocked by others. They're special to me."

Yang felt slightly guilty, but continued her happy attitude. "Sorry Jaune, I didn't know you'd take it so seriously. Let me make it up to you. Want a kiss to feel better?" She asked boldly.

Jaune just stared at her, "Wait what?" Jaune asked. Jaune wasn't aware of the concept of flirting, or relationships for that matter. Weisslogia only taught him how to fight and he was taught very little beyond that. Before Yang could say anything Ruby jumped in.

"Okay guys we need to leave, like right now!" She said as she started pushing Yang out the door, "See you at the cliff!" Ruby yelled. Jaune was still dumbfounded by Yang's last words. 'A kiss? What even is that?' Jaune thought. He'd heard of it before, but he wasn't sure what it was exactly. He thought for a moment, but then remembered what Ruby said.

"Crap! Gotta get to the cliff!" Jaune yelled as he sprinted out the door.

Jaune barely made it to the last empty platform before Ozpin began his speech. Ozpin raised an eyebrow at the blonde, who was slightly winded from his sprint over to the cliff, but then returned to his stoic demeanor.

"For years you've trained to become warriors. Today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." As Glynda spoke about the teams, Jaune stared at the forest. It looked so calm and peaceful, but he knew there were creatures of darkness lurking inside. He heard Opzin say that the person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years. Jaune gave Ozpin a quizzical look.

'That's kind've a weird way to select teammates,' Jaune thought, but this was Ozpin who came up with this. There's always some weird thing that influences his decisions. And every time it has been for the best, so why start doubting him now. He heard Ruby sound like she was upset. She must not be happy about the team situation. That was understandable. From what he gathered, Ruby wasn't the most social person. The only people that he'd seen or heard Ruby talk to were him, her sister, Weiss, and Blake. Ruby did seem to get along with Blake decently enough, but not so much with Weiss.

"I guess I'll try to be her partner then." Jaune whispered. Jaune looked to his left and saw students being launched one after another. Yang winked at him before sliding a pair of aviators on her face, then was launched. Then Ruby smiled at him and was also launched. Jaune prepared himself for the worst, as soon as he heard the small sounds of gears turning, he braced himself. He too, was launched into the air.

Jaune watched as several students made their landings, most of them were pretty smooth, while others were quite destructive. He couldn't think of any way to land using his powers. He'd just make craters. He was about to pull out his shield and just wing it when he felt something get impaled into his hood. He looked and saw a familiar looking javelin.

"Looks like my partner has been decided," He said as he was sent into a tree, suspended in the air. Jaune yelled, 'thank you!' and heard another, 'I'm sorry!'

'That girl sure is humble,' Jaune thought. Jaune stayed suspended in the air by the javelin in his hood. He tried to rip it out, but that javelin was pretty damn deep in the tree and he wasn't in a good 'ripping a weapon out of a tree' position. He heard someone complaining in a nearby bush and saw Weiss appear from the bush. She looked up at Jaune, who merely smiled and waved. He saw the distaste in her eyes as she walked away. 'Kinda figured that would happen,' Jaune thought. Soon after Pyrrha walked up to where he was hanging, "Jaune, are there any spots left on your team?" She asked.

He smiled, "That depends, how good are you at ripping a javelin out of a tree?" Pyrrha laughed lightly. Jaune's smile grew even wider. His new teammate would be a good one after all.

'This should be interesting,' Jaune thought.


	3. Chapter 3

Jaune was hung above Pyrrha, waiting for her to help him get out of his current situation. Pyrrha lifted up her right hand above her head and Jaune watched as the hand glowed slightly. Slowly the spear was slid out of the tree. Jaune watched as he was slowly being released with a curious look. Once the spear was entirely removed, Jaune landed on his feet with a slight stumble due to the height, but Jaune wasn't injured.

"That was cool! How'd you do that?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha put her spear into its sword form and sheathed it on her back.

"My semblance is polarity, I have power over magnetism." Pyrrha replied. Jaune smiled wide.

"That's awesome!" Was all he could say. Pyrrha turned to start walking north, a happy smile plastered on her face.

"Are you ready to go?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune sniffed the air for a moment, taking in the various scents that resided and those of the students who were scattered across the forest.

"Do you want to get to the relics first or meet up with Ruby and Weiss? They're not too far away." Jaune asked in return, laying out the options obvious to him.

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow at this, "How do you know where they are?"

Jaune was quick to reply happily, "By smell, every person that I've personally met so far I've memorized their smell. Every person has a distinct smell to me." Pyrrha motioned Jaune to lead the way towards Ruby and Weiss.

"So then, what do they smell like?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune sniffed the air again, "Ruby smells like rose petals, who would've figured. Weiss smells like snow on a winter day." Jaune explained. Pyrrha chuckled.

"So does that mean smells are closely related to someone's personality?"

Jaune thought for a moment, "Not entirely, sometimes it's what the person is around most, so the smell will stay with them." Pyrrha nodded in understanding, but blushed slightly at her next thought.

"So then what's mine?"

"Pardon?"

"What's my 'distinct scent?'"

Jaune sniffed again, making Pyrrha a bit more self-conscious, but didn't show it. "You smell like cherries and a hint of metal." He smiled at her.

Pyrrha gave him an odd stare, "Is that a good thing?"

Jaune shook his head, "Well no smells are bad to me, you may think that cherries and metal are a bad mix, but I find it to be pleasant."

Pyrrha blushed slightly again. She never really had anyone complement her smell before, unless she was wearing a perfume, but she felt happy about his words nevertheless. "Thank you," she whispered shyly, mentally cursing herself for loosing her composure.

Jaune was about to ask her why she went so quiet, but he held out one arm in front of Pyrrha to stop her. She looked at him quizzically, but then saw a tree barely ten feet away suddenly combust into flames. "Found 'em." Jaune said.

Both of them moved in closer silently, then noticed that they were surrounded by beowolves, but they were bickering at each other. "That's not the best time to do that." Jaune whispered. They saw the tree that was on fire fall over, causing more foliage to burn and start a forest fire.

"We have to get out of here!" Weiss said, grabbing Ruby's arm and tugging her along. The beowolves also made a retreat from the fire, all but one. It was slightly larger than the rest of the pack and had more bones covering its body. It began to chase Ruby and Weiss silently. Jaune looked at Pyrrha, who nodded, and ran after the pursuer.

The beowolf was closing in on its unsuspecting prey, while it was being chased without it noticing. Soon Ruby and Weiss found themselves going up a hill, which slowed then down. This let the beowolf get closer to them. Jaune knew that he and Pyrrha weren't going to make it in time to intercept it. As the beowolf leapt into the air towards Ruby and Weiss, who heard it, but wouldn't be able to react in time, time seemed to slow down, Pyrrha unsheathing her javelin, Jaune taking a stance, Ruby and Weiss turning their heads towards the beowolf, but without their weapons drawn they wouldn't be able to stop it from pouncing on them. Pyrrha was about to change her javelin into its carbine mode, 'I'm not going to make it in time!' she thought.

Suddenly she heard Jaune yell, "White Dragon's Roar!" She looked over to see Jaune with his left foot back, both hands forming a sort of gun barrel in front of his mouth, and a white laser coming out of said barrel. The laser quickly made its way to its target, going straight through its back and going over the two girls' heads. Their jaws dropped, Pyrrha gazed at Jaune in awe while Jaune smiled.

"You guys alright?" he asked as he and Pyrrha jogged over to them.

They were astonished, Ruby's eyes were sparkling, "That was so cool! You didn't even have you use your weapon to kill it! You just yelled something and killed it with a freaking LASER!" Ruby said with enthusiasm.

Weiss regained her calm expression, "Yes that was quite impressive. Maybe you're not as bad as I made you out to be." Weiss said. Jaune scratched the back of his head at the somewhat insulting compliment, but he figured it was the best he would get from Weiss.

"Thanks I guess, so who wants to get some relics." The three girls looked at each other, and then nodded. Weiss was reluctant to go with Jaune, but at least Pyrrha was there. She should help Weiss stay sane since Weiss took an odd fascination with Pyrrha.

As the group walked through the forest, Pyrrha looked at Jaune, "What was that you yelled before you used your attack?" she asked.

Jaune smiled, "That was my White Dragon's Roar, it's one of my attacks that I use with my semblance."

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow, "Then why did you call it out?"

Jaune's smile didn't falter, "It just comes naturally, I do it with all of my attacks." Jaune responded. He did like to be dramatic after all. The names just came naturally for him for some reason.

Weiss stepped in, "What if you're up against an opponent who knows all of your attacks? It's stupid to call out your attack names."

Jaune shrugged, "I suppose you're right, but I can't help it. It just comes naturally. From what I've heard, all Dragon Slayers do it."

Now Ruby stepped in, "There are more Dragon Slayers like you?" she asked with interest. Jaune put his hand to his chin in thought.

"Well not exactly like me, they are all trained to use a different Dragon Slayer Art. Mine is White as you know. It's attribute is holy. There used to be several dragon slayers, but from what my father has told me, the most there could possibly be in this time period is four, including me." Now they were all curious.

"How does your father know that?" Pyrrha asked.

Jaune was about to answer, but stopped. 'Should I say that my father is a dragon? They weren't totally on board with my abilities, how will they understand their origin?' He thought. As he was about to give an answer avoiding his father, he inhaled through his nose and cringed.

"Stop," he said to his group. They immediately complied.

"What's the matter?" Pyrrha asked.

Jaune looked to his right, "I can smell old blood, it's faint, but it's there. He quickly ran towards the source with his group right behind him. Soon he found himself at the entrance of a cave. Ruby looked slightly intimidated by the carvings on the outside. Jaune noticed the carvings as well.

"This is a Deathstalker cave. It's still in there." Jaune stated.

Weiss looked at the Dragon Slayer skeptically, "How could you possibly know, you said the blood was old, it could be gone by now. And how could you possibly smell it? That's just weird."

Jaune sighed, annoyed from Weiss's barrage of skepticism.

"Do you really want to find out? Because I'll bring it out here right now." Jaune said, obviously annoyed.

Weiss looked at the cave, then back to Jaune, "N-no I think I'm good."

Jaune smirked at his victory, "Thought so."

Ruby raised her hand, "So what do we do about it, just leave it alone?"

Jaune thought for a moment, "It's killed before, it can certainly kill again. I think we should end it here." He said as he walked just inside the cave entrance. "I'll get it out here, you three wait for it to attack me."

Pyrrha looked worried, "Wait! Don't go in there alone!"

Jaune laughed, "Who said I was going in the cave." He took a stance, "White Dragon's Holy Breath!" He yelled in the echoing cave. The three expected a laser like last time, but instead saw a large aura blast travel down the cave. Soon they heard an explosion that shook the cave. Jaune stepped back, drawing his sword and shield. The girls pulled out there weapons, but were confused as they weren't met with an enemy yet, all there was was silence until Jaune yelled, "Here they come!"

'They?' the girls thought, immediately after they thought that they heard loud screeching and pointed legs tap on the rocky ground. Two large deathstalkers burst through the entrance of the cave, causing the four students to jump back to avoid the debris.

"I thought you said there was only one!" Weiss yelled.

Jaune looked back at her, "My bad, they both smell the same, so I couldn't tell." He chuckled nervously.

"How can you be laughing at a situation like this?!" Weiss shrieked,

Jaune just smiled, "Because this is about to get really fun!"

Weiss stared at him for a moment. Hunters were supposed to be serious, but Jaune looked excited more than anything. She sighed before she leveled the point of her rapier at one of the Deathstalkers. Jaune twirled his sword once.

"Let's get started!"

**There used to be an authors note about my standings on pairings for Jaune, and honestly... I'm absolute crap when it comes to that kind of stuff, and I'm still thinking about it.**


	4. Chapter 4

Four trained students, two Deathstalkers, seems like a fair fight right? Not at all, while Jaune and Pyrrha's teamwork was decent enough to keep one Deathstalker on the defensive, however Weiss and Ruby were very unsynchronized with eachother, causing their opponent to drive them back. Jaune was trying to build up his white dust by blocking while Pyrrha would use the openings Jaune made for her to attack. The Deathstalker would try to hit them with its claw, Jaune would block it and shove the claw away, leaving an opening. Pyrrha would attack, then the Deathstalker would try to use its large stinger, which would get blocked again. This process kept on repeating until it looked like it was barely moving, its claws and armor cracked and the stinger removed, rendering it nearly useless.

Pyrrha walked over to the beaten Grimm, transformed her sword into its rifle mode, found a crack in its armor where a fatal point was, and shot a single bullet. The Deathstalker was too exhausted to put up a fight, so it accepted its defeat and was slain by the bullet. Jaune and Pyrrha smiled at each other and were about to praise each other when they remembered that they weren't alone. They heard Weiss yell something about Ruby being clumsy, and Ruby retort with some childish insult. Their Deathstalker didn't waste any time in attacking. It went for Weiss while her back was facing it. She was too distracted at yelling at Ruby to even notice. Before its claw could strike her, Jaune intercepted it with his shield.

He looked back at her with slight annoyance, "Could you please save that for when we aren't in danger?" Weiss was shocked and embarrassed, so she silently nodded. The four students raised their weapons.

Jaune sniffed the air, and appeared to be far more alert afterwards, "Okay guys I've got good news and bad news. The good news is I can smell Blake and Yang not to far from here, along with Ren and Nora. Bad news is-." He was cut off by a screech and several howls.

"That." Jaune deadpanned. A small pack of beowolves formed a circle around the group, the same pack that Ruby and Weiss encountered from before. Jaune looked up and saw a large Nevermore circling them.

'They seem more organized than they should be.' Jaune thought. They needed an escape plan, fast. Jaune knew that if they got to the others, they'd stand a better chance against the horde of Grimm. Jaune checked the white dust capsules in his shield, he had filled all three of them from blocking the first Deathstalker's attacks over and over. He subtly pulled out one of his capsules, 'I really hate doing this, but I can't think of any other way to get out of this without someone getting hurt.'

Jaune turned his head towards his comrades, "I'm about to cause a slight ruckus, when I say now, we'll run backwards. We're probably going to need to take out a few of the beowolves right behind us." The girls looked at eachother, looked at the Grimm slowly closing the circle around them, then nodded. Jaune readied the capsule in his hand.

"NOW!" he yelled as he threw the capsule. The Grimm made a move to attack, but the Deathstalker in front of them along with the Beowolves near it suddenly couldn't see. The capsule had landed directly on the Deathstalker's bone-like armor plating, cracking the capsule open, which caused a flash of light to form. As soon as the girls heard Jaune's shout, they ran the opposite way, with Jaune right behind them. There were only three Beowolves that were blocking their way. They were easily taken down by Pyrrha and Ruby's high powered rifles. They sprinted through the woods, jumping over rocks and stumps trying their best not to fall. Jaune could faintly hear the cries of the Beowolves as they were slowly recovering from their blindness. The Nevermore however was right on their tail. It wasn't attacking them at all, just following them. That bothered Jaune, 'Why is it so cautious?'

Ruby looked back at Jaune, "How did you do that back there?"

Jaune snapped out of his daze, "Can this wait until we aren't about to die?" Ruby nodded. She knew they were in danger, but she was still a weapon fanatic, and Jaune clearly used some form of weapon. Jaune sniffed the air again, "We're almost there! But we'd better haul some serious ass because I can smell the Grimm getting closer!" They girls nodded and sprinted as fast as they could towards the clearing.

Yang and Blake were currently holding their relics, which strangely enough, were chess pieces. Blake's sensitive ears picked up a couple of people moving quickly towards their location. That sounded normal enough, except she also heard growling from something that sounded rather tired. She turned her head towards the area where they were most likely to pop out of. Sure enough, several trees were knocked over by an ursa flailing its arms around before collapsing, leaving a disappointed, energetic girl to frown. Closely behind was a black haired man, breathing heavily.

"Aw! It's broken." The energetic girl whined.

"Nora, please. Never do that again." The man said between breaths. When he looked up she was already by the relics singing 'I'm queen of the castle!' The man seemed slightly annoyed, "Nora!" He shouted.

Nora merely giggled, "Coming Ren!" she said as she skipped over to him.

Blake raised an eyebrow, "Did that girl just ride in on an ursa?" she deadpanned. Before Yang could even place one word into her response, they turned their heads sharply to the sounds of several people breathing heavily. Out into the clearing came a Heiress, a Reaper, a Spartan, and a Dragon Slayer.

Ruby looked up to see her sister. "Yang!" Yang looked at her sister in surprise.

"Ruby?"

Blake looked at Weiss, "Weiss?"

Weiss looked at Yang, "Yang?"

Yang looked at Jaune, "Jaune!" she sounded faintly relieved.

"NORA!" Nora suddenly shouted, popping in between the two groups.

"NEVERMORE!" Jaune shouted while pointing at the sky.

That's when Yang lost it, "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! COULD EVERYONE JUST CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEOFRE SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENS AGAIN?!" fire rose behind her, signifying her rage.

Jaune quickly spoke up, "Nope! We can't relax now! Things are about to get exciting!" he yelled with a smile. Ren quickly ran over, still out of breath. The Deathstalker broke through the line of trees with the remaining Beowolves behind it.

"Great the gangs all here, now we can die together." Yang said in a sarcastic tone.

"Not if I can help it!" Ruby said with courage. Before anyone could stop her, she launched herself at the Deathstalker. She was quickly knocked away by one of its claws.

"D-don't worry, totally fine!" Ruby said while getting back onto her feet. She didn't sound so sure of her own words though. Ruby noticed how close she was to the Deathstalker and quickly tried to make her escape. Yang and Jaune both ran towards her to support her, but halted when they heard a screech from the Nevermore. It was preparing to attack. Jaune was about to attempt to distract the Nevermore with his roar, but the feathers were already flying towards Ruby. Fortunately, none of the feathers left her in any fatal danger, but one caught her hood and she was pulling it to get herself out.

"Ruby get out of there!" Yang yelled with worry and fear etched onto her face.

"I'm trying!" Ruby yelled back while frantically trying to pull out her cloak. Before Jaune could attack the Deathstalker closing in on her, he felt a wave of cold air brush past him. Jaune stared in awe as Weiss created an ice wall to stop the Deathstalker's stinger, followed by a floor of ice to freeze the feet of the Beowolves, momentarily stopping their advance.

"You are so childish," Weiss began.

'Is she really doing this NOW!' Jaune thought, but didn't speak up. Weiss certainly had terrible timing.

"And dim witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style." Weiss continued, "And I suppose I can be a bit… difficult, but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off. I'll be… nicer." Weiss's expression changed into something akin to kindness. Jaune could tell that Weiss wasn't used to this sort of thing.

Ruby looked back at Weiss, "I'm not trying to show off, I want you to know I can do this." Ruby said quietly.

Weiss rolled her eyes, "You're fine." She said. As Weiss walked away, Jaune could see Ruby smile. He swore he heard her say something about 'normal knees' but there were more important matters to attend to.

After a touching reunion between sisters, Jaune pointed out that the Nevermore is circling back. Weiss pointed out that there was no need to fight, what they needed was right in front of them. To Jaunes disappointment everyone else agreed that obtaining the objective took priority. Jaune shrugged in defeat as he walked over and grabbed the same chess piece as Pyrrha. He noticed that Ren and Nora had the same pieces. "I still think we could take 'em." Jaune commented. With that everyone began running back to the cliffs.

As they ran, Jaune could smell the nevermore moving in, he could also hear the cracking of ice. The group was running by several old pillars when the Nevermore cut them off from the front. Each individual team took cover behind separate pillars while the Nevermore roosted itself on an old castle-like structure. Jaune could hear the snapping of branches and trees as the creatures behind them drew near.

"Move!" Jaune yelled. The teams ran out of their pillars, avoiding the feathers that were being shot at them. Jaune heard a command from Ren, leading to Nora firing several grenades at the Nevermore, causing it to lose focus and fly to a new location. Ren and Blake went to support Nora from the Deathstalker as Weiss used her glyph to propel herself and the bomber away. With the Deathstalker hot on their tail, they ran towards a bridge. Pyrrha switched her sword into its rifle mode.

"Go, go!" she yelled as she fired several shots at the Deathstalker along with Ren, who was using his green automatic pistols.

Before anyone could react, Jaune yelled, "I'm going to stun the Deathstalker and take out the Beowolves behind it. Once the Deathstalker is stunned, hit it with everything you've got!" He shouted, hoping that at least someone would hear him. Before he could set his plan into motion, the Nevermore slammed through the bridge, leaving Ren, Pyrrha, and Blake to fight the Grimm horde behind them. Jaune looked over to closest the closest individual near him, which happened to be Nora.

"We need to get over there!" he commanded.

"Let's do this!" Nora replied, grenade launcher at the ready.

Jaune looked at the distance he'd have to cross, "Okay, just give me a second to-," before he could prepare himself, Nora knocked Jaune back and switched her grenade launcher into a hammer, then slammed in onto the edge of the remaining side of their bridge, launching Jaune over. With a click of the trigger, Nora had shot directly behind herself, following Jaune. Jaune rolled to slow himself down while Nora went for an attack, which ended with her having to blast herself backwards, knocking Blake off of the bridge in the process. Jaune looked over the edge worriedly, but found relief when he saw her throw her roped-blade into a nearby wall. Returning his focus to the fight at hand, Jaune saw the Beowolves right behind the Deathstalker. They had little time now.

"You all heard me before right?" they looked at him and nodded, he smiled, "Good, then let's do this!" Jaune put his shield and sword away and ran towards the Deathstalker. It tried to hit him with one of its claws, but Jaune quickly dropped onto his back and slid under the deathstalker. While he was under its belly, Jaune focused his aura into his hand, "White Dragon's Claw!" he yelled as he punched the Deathstalker's exposed flesh. The Deathstalker tried to move, but couldn't. Jaune had frozen it in place. Once Jaune was out from under the Deathstalker, he used his remaining momentum to stand up and leap into the air, drawing his sword and shield yet again, slashing downwards at the first Beowolf in his sight.

"Hit it now!" Jaune yelled back, but was pleased to see his teammates had already used his attack to their advantage. Ren was shooting at the stinger while Nora was hammering away at the Deathstalkers outer shell. Pyrrha was carefully taking out its eyes with several, well placed shots.

"These guys are awesome," Jaune smiled with glee. He turned his attention back to the beowolves. 'Only four remaining? That's no fun,' Jaune frowned. He dropped his sword and shield and raised his fists.

"I hope you're all ready for the White Dragons Fist." Jaune said. His fists began to glow a white aura until they were completely encased in spheres of light. The first beowolf rushed forward at Jaune. It went to slash at his chest, but he ducked and landed an uppercut right at its jaw, a sickening crack followed right after the hit connected. The first beowolf was down. The other three hesitated before to ran directly towards him. He was prepared for them to attack him head on as Beowolves normally did, but was surprised to see them split apart to try and flank him from both sides. The one on his left went to claw at his head while the one to his right went for his feet. Just before either attack was about to make contact, Jaune jumped up just enough to avoid the attack at his feet and leaned far enough back to avoid the attack towards his head. He thrust both of his fists into their chests while in mid-air, killing them immediately. They were young Beowolves, so they weren't very tough. Jaune fell onto his back, his shield and sword were at his feet. He could smell and hear the last Beowolf running towards him. Jaune looked at his feet to see the Beowolf only ten feet away and his shield touching his heel.

'This is gonna be awesome,' Jaune thought. The Beowolf was now only a few feet away. Jaune slammed his heel onto the bottom edge of his shield, forcing it upwards, right into the Beowolf's jaw. As it stepped back in a daze, Jaune spun himself around with his hands and swept its legs with his own. Before it could fall, Jaune stood and brought his elbow to its stomach, knocking it out cold. Jaune grabbed his sword and shield and walked over to the unconscious Beowolf.

"You lost," he simply said before slicing its head clean off with his sword. Jaune turned around, 'I hope everyone else is done with their fights,' he thought. Unfortunately that was not the case. The Deathstalker was moving again, much to Jaune's surprise. The Deathstalker's stinger hung loosely to its tail thanks to Ren. Jaune saw Ren knocked out by a rock wall and Pyrrha and Nora struggling to kill the Deathstalker.

"We'll just have to change that, won't we?" Jaune said, a hint of excitement in his voice.


	5. Chapter 5

**For anyone who is new to this story, I rushed a part of Jaune's backstory in this a while ago. I've been re-editing these chapters from the beginning, but I can't really take that part out now.**

'Only one injured Deathstalker left? That seems easy enough'. Jaune saw that is was still fighting, even though it looked tired and wounded. 'My White Dragons Claw must not be powerful enough at this level of my power to have kept it for long, looks like I'll have to use a capsule.' Jaune thought as he opened the compartment of his shield, two left. He had only used one as a flashbang to escape. He didn't have any in his sword since he didn't use it nearly as much as he should have, but hey, he was having fun. He took out one of his shield's capsules while he sprinted towards the Deathstalker. He immediately opened the capsule and swallowed its contents and began to feel his aura coming back, and then some. 'This'll do for now,' Jaune thought. He leapt into the air from behind the Deathstalker and landed in front of Pyrrha, who was startled by his sudden entrance. "Sorry about my ability's failure, that doesn't normally happen, and it certainly won't happen again." Jaune said confidently.

"Don't worry about it, Ren isn't hurt too bad. He'll heal up real quick!" Nora said in a happy tone. Jaune smiled, then turned his head to the situation in front of them.

The Deathstalker's stinger was hanging loosely by only a few strands of flesh, courtesy of Ren. a large crack in the Deathstalker's outer shell directly above its brain, courtesy of Nora, and only one eye that hadn't been shot out, courtesy of Pyrrha. 'Well that's just obvious now,' Jaune thought. He pointed at the stinger, "Pyrrha!" He shouted, she immediately understood and threw her shield at it, cutting it off. Conveniently the stinger had lodged itself in the crack in its shell.

"Nora! Nail it!" Jaune yelled another order.

"Heads up!" was the reply he received. He readied his shield above his head. Once he felt the weight applied to it, he shoved her upwards while she shot her explosive weapon to give her a boost. She brought he hammer down directly onto the stinger, causing a fatal blow. It was still alive, but barely. Jaune jumped into the air and forced as much aura as he could into his fist.

"White Dragon's Fist!" he yelled as he punched straight through the stinger, causing the Deathstalker to be nearly torn in half by the blow. Jaune could feel the bridge start to fall apart from the final blow. "Move!" he yelled as he ran towards the end of the bridge. He was the first to cross, followed by Nora, then Pyrrha right before the bridge fell apart. Ren walked over to the three, out of breath.

"Welcome back," Jaune said, only to be proved wrong when Ren abruptly fainted. "Or not I suppose." Jaune whispered. He turned to the two huntresses, "Alright then, what about the Nevermore?" Pyrrha scanned the area around her, then noticed the large bird being carried by its neck by Ruby, who was running up a cliff. With the help of Weiss's glyphs and her own weapon, she ran all the way to the top and proceeded to wrap the blade around its neck and chop it off with one final shot. "Wow." Was all Jaune could say as the headless body of the Nevermore fell to the ground with a thud.

They made it back to Beacon with their chess pieces still in good shape. Jaune wondered what the importance was of the pieces, but was answered almost immediately when Ozpin announced that students with similar pieces will be placed on the same teams. Everyone looked at their pieces, then at everyone around them to find their team. Sure enough, Jaune was on a team with Pyrrha, Ren and Nora. He was pretty happy about this, but nobody could beat Nora's happiness to be on the same team as Ren. The teams were being called up to be acknowledged and given a team leader. Jaune was surprised to see that he had been chosen to lead his team. Even though the rest of his team smiled at him and agreed with the decision, he still wasn't entirely sure, but if Ozpin says he's going to lead a team, then he'll sure as hell try his best.

They were given one room number, which bothered Jaune. Even after the first night where everyone slept in the same room, he still wasn't comfortable with sharing a room with other people. Again, his team didn't seem to mind. He remembered Ozpin telling him about being within close proximity with your teammates builds trust, but Jaune was still uncomfortable with the whole thing. Once they made it to their room, they were surprised with how big it was. They each had a bed and enough space to have a little bit of their personal belongings next to the beds. Unfortunately for Jaune, all he had was his clothes and his weapon. He wished that he had more personal belongings, but the only personal thing he had was his weapon and shield. As his team was unpacking, Pyrrha looked at Jaune curiously, "Aren't you going to unpack?"

Jaune frowned, "I don't have anything to unpack," he said flatly. Pyrrha said no more, she could tell he wasn't comfortable yet. Jaune spent the rest of the afternoon laying on his bed and staring at the ceiling. Thankfully nobody interrupted him.

Once the night came, everyone was preparing to sleep. Nora was already in her pajamas while Ren was reading a book. Pyrrha was cleaning her weapon and Jaune was in the bathroom washing his face. Jaune looked around and scowled at himself, he forgot to bring his nightshirt with him. He opened the door hesitantly, he shouldn't be so nervous right? Maybe they won't notice or something. He looked down at his bare chest and frowned, 'Damn scars,' he thought. Of course his team would notice. You'd have to be blind not to notice.

He took a deep breath and walked out of the bathroom only in a pair of shorts. Jaune tried to cover himself with his arms and hurry over to his clothes, but that just drew more attention to him. Pyrrha looked up from her weapon and stared, too shocked to say anything. Jaune froze in place as Pyrrha's gaze fell upon him. She tried to look away, but couldn't. She could only admire the blonde's muscles. Unknown to most people, in all of Pyrrha's experience with tournaments, she didn't see many people shirtless. Seeing Jaune how he currently was came as quite a surprise to her. She saw every single bump and crater his muscles made, staring with a blush, and scars on his torso and stomach to top his whole appearance off.

'Wait, scars?' Pyrrha thought. She shook away her blush and before even considering anything else she asked, "Where did you get those scars?" Pyrrha nearly slapped herself as she asked the question. How she didn't notice that Jaune was uncomfortable until just now was an embarrassment. There was no going back now unfortunately. This question must've peaked Ren's interest, because he closed his book and turned around to see what Pyrrha was talking about with a raised eyebrow. Jaune paled, he hated to even recall the events that took place back then. He certainly didn't want to tell them about it, but he now felt like he was trapped in a corner with no escape. All he could think of was what Ozpin told him about trust and opening up to teammates. He sighed in defeat as he slumped into his bed.

"To put it simply, these scars were from a battle I had lost, one of the only battles I had ever lost." Pyrrha could see the pained look at his face. She knew she shouldn't have asked that question, but now she was worried. She saw how powerful Jaune was. He was probably more powerful than her. If somebody or something were to beat him and leave such a permanent mark on him, she didn't want to meet it.

"Who did that to you?" Ren asked, apparently not afraid to ask something so personal. He too, was curious. He also knew It was good to talk about something personal, just to relieve the burden from their shoulders. Jaune wasn't aware of this, but Ren noticed Jaune during the first night where they all slept in the same room. Ren noticed the scars that Jaune had before Jaune hid inside of his sleeping bag. Jaune had a huge amount of aura, so for something to leave such noticeable scars must have caused a great amount of damage to the Dragon Slayer.

Jaune looked up, he didn't know how to answer, nor did he want to answer. He had to choose his words carefully and effectively so he could end this conversation quick, but his dark thoughts took control and all he could think of was one cold answer, "The monster that murdered my father."

Pyrrha and Ren were both in shock, Nora was already fast asleep by the time the whole conversation started. Her attention span was pretty minimal. Jaune was at least thankful that he wouldn't have to tell a large group of people.

Pyrrha felt pity towards Jaune. That must've been quite the blow to take. She couldn't imagine the emotional trauma Jaune went through afterwards.

"You spoke a little bit about your father back in the forest, but you never mentioned that. What was he like?" Pyrrha asked carefully. She was REALLY treading on thin ice here. She was exceeding the boundaries of her newfound trust with Jaune.

Jaune was surprised, he didn't expect anyone to ask about his father. 'They're just gonna think I'm crazy, but what the hell, I've already told them this much'.

He looked down at his clenched hands, "Putting it simply, his name was Weisslogia. He was known as the 'White Dragon,' and no, that's not some sort of title. He literally is a dragon." He looked back up, expecting to see looks of amusement or disbelief, but to his shock both of his listeners were just staring at him. He could tell they wanted to ask more questions, but he couldn't stop himself, "He's the one who gave me my semblance. I know it's true that every person is born with a natural semblance, but if a dragon gives you their blessing, then whatever semblance you had is replaced by a Dragon Slayer Art. Weisslogia was once one of many dragons, but there was one dragon that was similar to a Grimm, heartless, dark, and ruthless. It wasn't stupid though. He knew that if the other dragons were to form an army against him, he would be killed. So over the course of several centuries, he has been killing any dragon he came across. Slowly, buy surely there were only a few left. Their only option was to adopt humans and train them in Dragon Slayer Arts. The only remaining dragons were my father, Kovin, Lagiocrus, and Paranath. So in theory, there are possibly four dragon slayers including myself. My father had met his end when I was only eight. He killed Weisslogia right in front of me. I ran as fast as I could, and thankfully he didn't seem to care. I tried to get my revenge when I was fourteen, but you can see how that ended. Anyways, I'm not sure if the other three dragons are alive, as well as the dragon slayers. All I know is that the dragon who murdered my father is still out there, and I will kill him, even if it kills me in the process." Jaune finished his short, but painful tale with a low growl.

Ren and Pyrrha had mixed expressions. They knew he wasn't lying, but it just sounded so unbelievable. There are dragons out there? Dragons were only told about in stories, and those descriptions were frightening to think about. The fact that dragons might actually be real sounded more terrifying than any Grimm. Especially since one dragon has been murdering the others just because it was worried that it might be defeated. If what Jaune said was true, then there's still a force stronger than Grimm out there, and that's certainly not a good thing. "Does that dragon have a name?" Ren asked, he planned on researching this dragon at his own time. He didn't look like it, but Jaune's story had him worried. Jaune closed his eyes, as if just remembering the dragons name caused him pain.

"Acnologia." He answered in a dark tone.

**I've made up my mind on what Dragon Slayers to put in. Thanks for the suggestions.**


	6. Chapter 6

I'm going to start taking my time with these chapters, so a chapter a day isn't gonna happen. The previous chapter was way too rushed, but the best I can do now is just go with it.

Jaune woke up to the sound of a loud whistle and a girl yelling, probably Weiss. 'Jeez, does anyone know how to be quiet in the morning?' Jaune thought. He was still uneasy about the night before. He had just told one of his biggest secrets to his teammates he had only met yesterday. It had just been such a long time since he had been able to feel like he could trust anyone again. He felt comfortable around his teammates. With a groan he sat up, his teammates starred to stir, probably waking up from the same source as him. He quickly walked into the bathroom and started to take a shower.

He finished in only five minutes. He knew is team was waiting for their turns. This time he actually brought clothes with him, but he didn't like them. It was mandatory for all of the students to wear uniforms during class sessions. He was about to start putting on his clothes, which went smoothly enough, except for the tie. 'Wait, what the hell do I do with this?' he thought. Maybe he could get someone to help him out. He stepped outside and looked at his teammates. They were all waiting patiently for him to get out of the bathroom to they could wash up and get changed. Before saying anything Nora sprinted into the bathroom with her endless energy. Jaune shrugged and asked, "Could someone help me out?" Pyrrha looked at him curiously, "What's wrong?"

"Well I'm… not quite sure what to do with this thing." He said holding out his tie.

"Wait, you mean your tie?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune just stared at it in his hand.

"Yeah, I have no idea what to do with this."

This time Ren asked, "So you need help with tying your tie then?"

Jaune smiled, "Seems like it, so anyway, could someone help me out?"

Pyrrha stood up and smiled, "I'd be happy to Jaune." He handed her the tie and she stood only a few inches from him. She effortlessly and gracefully wrapped the tie around his collar until it was firmly on his neck.

"Thanks Pyrrha." He simply said.

"Anytime Jaune." She responded happily.

After the tie incident, their morning went normally. Everyone was fully dressed and ready to leave. "So when do we need to leave?" Jaune asked.

His answer came when he could hear Weiss say, "It's eight fifty five you dunce!" before hearing a door open and the team across the hall sprinting towards the classes.

"There's your answer," Ren said before team JNPR ran out of their dorm room to start their first day of classes.

Jaune had never been to an actual classroom before, and from what he was seeing, he wasn't too excited. He didn't know he would have to sit through lectures, he thought he would just fight, grow stronger, and have some fun. Clearly that was not the case. The first class he had was a dust study class with Goodwitch. He was partnered with Ren, who thankfully did most of the work, which was mixing several different kinds of dust to make ammunition and such. Jaune had only ever dealt with white dust. The white dust can only be made by his weapons, so he didn't have much knowledge in any other types of dust to his displeasure. He didn't like it when people did work for him, he liked to carry his own weight and then some.

His next class he actually had some knowledge in. It was a history class with Professor Oobleck. He was good for the first day because he mainly talked about the faunus. Jaune new a decent amount of faunus related things. He was happy that he could actually follow along with the lecture.

The class after was his favorite so far, it was a class about the biology of Grimm and other related subjects. The professor was more than middle aged man who talked like a man who had achieved many great things. Jaune took a liking to this teacher. He mainly told stories about himself, which entertained Jaune, but what really got Jaune into the class is when he asked for volunteers to fight a Grimm in the class. Jaune immediately raised his hand and was called on. The professor, Professor Port, seemed very pleased to have what he referred to Jaune as 'a ladies man in the making' so enthusiastic to volunteer. Jaune wasn't exactly sure what the compliment meant, but he was eager to fight something.

After ten minutes of preparation, he opponent was in a steel cage before him. Jaune didn't bother to take out his weapon, he didn't need it. Professor Port seemed surprised by this, "Confident, are we? Very well! Let the match begin!" He shouted as he cut the chain holding the beast captive. It was a large goretusk with large… tusks, probably why it was named as such. Jaune simply stood in his place, not even putting his guard up. As the goretusk was about to ram into him, Jaune stepped to the side. Before the creature could run by him, he let his fist become incased in his aura and punched the goretusk directly in the stomach, its weakest point. It was sent flying towards a few students sitting in the top row, who had to dive out of the way to avoid the creature. Everyone stared at Jaune in awe, he had just beaten a Grimm with one hand, effortlessly at that. Jaune smiled and scratched the back of his neck.

"Sorry about that!" he said in a sheepish tone.

Professor Port was immensely pleased by this result, "It seems we are indeed in the presence of a true hunter in training!" he said happily.

Soon, the time to eat lunch had arrived, and Jaune was starving. He and his team were able to grab an empty table large enough to fit both team JNPR and RWBY. Seconds after they sat down to wait, they saw their partnering team. Yang and Blake seemed to be normal, but Ruby looked upset and Weiss looked pissed. Jaune could feel the tension from his seat. He was far beyond comfortable.

"So… hows everyones day going?" Jaune questioned, hoping to break the ice. Unfortunately, he was dealing with the queen of ice.

She scowled at him, "Just peachy." She said in a cold tone.

Yang leaned over to him, "I wouldn't push her any further than that, she's not too happy at the moment."

Jaune raised an eyebrow, "Is she ever happy?" he asked, he may have said his words a bit too loudly.

"What was that Jaune?" Weiss barked.

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" he said as he rose his hands up in defense. They ate in silence until a cry of pain broke the awkwardness everyone at the table. They turned their heads to see a faunus girl getting her bunny ears pulled by team CRDL. Looks of anger and disappointment were shared by the table, but Jaune had his own expression, pure hatred. He absolutely hated it when others were treated unfairly. He stood up, causing both teams to look at him. They didn't want him to get into trouble, but also didn't want to get in his way. His expression told them that trying to stop him was like trying to keep Oobleck in one place, impossible.

He quickly made his way to the team of bullies. He went behind Cardin and tapped his shoulder. Cardin turned his head to see a short blonde giving him a hateful look.

Jaune growled and said, "Care to tell me what the hell you think you're doing to that girl?"

Cardin laughed, "Showing this trash why she's trash, got a problem with that?" he smirked, his team laughed with him and turned their attention to Jaune. The girls ears were still in a tight grip in Cardins hands, who pulled again, causing the girl more pain.

Jaune spoke in a louder, more threatening tone, "Actually I do, and if you don't let go of her right now and walk away, you're gonna have a problem of your own." Cardin laughed at him again.

"You? I want to see how you're going to become a problem for us? You're scrawny as hell. Russell get him out of here." The man named Russell went to grab Jaune by the collar of his shirt, but ended up getting thrown across the cafeteria. The rest of Cardin's team gave quizzical looks. Jaune just held a cold stare.

"Yeah, keep throwing more goons at me, it'll probably work the second time." Cardin scowled.

"You two, get him!" The other two lackeys went to punch Jaune, who merely crouched below their fists and in one swift motion, sent both of his fists into their chins, sending them flying upwards. Carding growled, he let go of the faunus and went to punch Jaune. Jaune didn't bother to move, instead he took the punch head on, literally. The sound of the fist colliding with Jaunes head caused anyone who wasn't already watching to suddenly become interested. Cardin smirked, but quickly faltered when he saw Jaune looking directly into his eyes with blood running down his head. Before Cardin could try to hit him a second time, Jaune made his move.

"White Dragons Claw!" he yelled as his fist landed onto Cardin's chest, knocking him back. Cardin tried to recover, but couldn't. His body wasn't responding to him

"What the hell did you do to me?!" Cardin demanded. Jaune wiped the blood off of his head.

"My attack has frozen all of your body movements, now you're going to shut up and listen." He walked up to the faunus and held out his hand, the girl timidly took his hand and was lifted up. She was surprised to see Jaune's arm around her shoulder. She responded with a small 'eep!' but didn't try to move.

"Now Cardin," Jaune began, "Everyone here is a student that made it into the top school of hunting Grimm. Everyone here made it because they have the skill to be here. Just like this girl. She made it to Beacon with skill, she passed her initiation with skill, and someday, she's going to be killing Grimm, with SKILL. Nobody here is lower than anyone else. You should try to not be such an asshole to a person, who one day, may be the one to save your ass." He let go of the faunus and walked over to Cardin, "And one day, I could be one of those people to, so please try to get on my good side from now on 'kay?" Cardin didn't respond, all he could do was stare. "You're silence better be a yes, or next time I'm going to make this hurt a lot more."

Cardin was about to question him, but found his answer when Jaunes fist began to glow. Jaune punched Cardin directly in the stomach, causing him to fall over in pain. Jaune walked back to the faunus girl. "Are you okay?" he asked, genuine concern in his voice.

"Y-yes, thank you very much." She replied with a nervous stutter. Jaune smiled, "Anytime, my names Jaune by the way, what's your name?" he asked. "….Velvet," she replied slowly, still not sure what had happened in front of her.

"Well Velvet, I hope you have a nice day, we should hang out some time." And with that he walked back to his table, oblivious to the stares he was receiving from everyone else in the cafeteria.


	7. Chapter 7

"What just happened?" These words were muttered amongst the students of Beacon, why? Because a single blonde kid just defended a faunus, beat a team of four, and walked out of it like it wasn't a big deal. To Jaune it really wasn't a big deal, he just thought what he did was right. This is why he is currently eating his food back at his table, completely unaware of all the different stares he was getting, some by his own table. Jaune looked up from his food to see his friends and allies with their mouths open and eyes wide. "What?" Jaune asked simply. Suddenly his table has booming with different questions and statements.

"That was so cool! You just beat an entire team by yourself!" Ruby yelled happily.

"I was going along the lines of breaking his legs, but you just broke Cardins mind!" Nora exclaimed with a massive grin.

"Wow dragon slayer, you just went way up the list of guys I'd like to-," she was unable to finish her sentence since she had a hand over her mouth, courtesy of Blake, "Good work," Blake said with a small smile.

"Why did you do that? You just caused a bigger scene!" Weiss shouted, but her facial expression showed that she was impressed.

"How did you even do that?" Pyrrha asked with interest.

"That was certainly interesting," Ren said, back to his calm self.

Jaune looked around, completely overwhelmed by all of the people talking to and about him. "I just did what I thought was right, is that so bad?"

The others looked at each other, and then went back to their meals. After that there were only a few small conversations taking place, that is until Yang decided to try and tease Jaune, "So you want to hang out with the cute bunny girl eh? You were basically her knight in shining armor." She said with a wink. Ruby and Pyrrha turned their heads to this, Weiss didn't seem extremely interested, and Blake lifted her gaze from her book, but somehow continued to read it.

"Well yeah, she seems nice, but also kinda lonely. I didn't see her team jumping in anytime soon to help her out, or at all for that matter." Jaune replied innocently. Yang deflated slightly by that statement. He was right, where was her team? Did they not see her getting bullied, or did they just not care? Either way that fact basically took all of the wind out of her sails. Ruby and Pyrrha both sighed in slight relief, although they weren't entirely sure why, but they had an idea, which caused them to look away from Jaune. Blake went back to her book, but couldn't focus on the words on front of her. Her thoughts went back to Jaune and his chivalrous act. She was glad he stood up for a faunus. Unfortunately something like that hardly ever happens anymore.

Lunch soon ended and all of the first year students were told to go into the training room for their final class. Team CRDL was the last team to enter the room for… obvious reasons. They were bruised and cut, but didn't say anything about it. Not that they needed to, everyone already knew. It was for that reason that when names began to get called to fight in one on one battles, some students were afraid. They saw what Jaune had done to FOUR students with ease. Jaune was practically bouncing in his seat like a little kid, waiting for his turn. The class itself dragged on for quite a while since every single student needed to be selected randomly to fight.

Pyrrha was put up against Dove from CRDL, who lost within the first thirty seconds. Nora was put up against Yang, which was an extremely long fight. They both had some impressive stamina, but it ended up as Nora winning because Yang went a bit overboard with her last assault on Nora and drained the last of her aura. More of Jaune's teammates were chosen one by one against students he had never met before. Surprisingly most of their battles ended with ties or victories. Jaune definitely liked watching his friends fight, but he was getting bored out of his mind with the lack of action he was getting. He was about to doze off until Pyrrha shook him from his daze and pointed onto the large projection board. His name and picture was up on the board, the member he was fighting was still being chosen. The random names of people kept going until it stopped on one of the people he had already fought, Cardin. Jaune wasn't quite sure how to react, but Cardin seemed like a mixture of pissed off and slightly scared.

The two hunters-in-training entered the arena with their weapons drawn. Jaune decided that he didn't want to use his shield for this fight. Even though it would give him an advantage over Cardin's heavy looking mace. Jaune gripped his sword with his right hand and kept his left hand loose, but ready to go. Cardin looked stiff as a board, while Jaune's posture could be seem as laid back, but focused.

"Begin!" yelled Ms. Goodwitch. As the bell sounded, those who knew Jaune fully expected him to charge headstrong as usual. However, they were surprised when he raised his free hand into the air.

"Ms. Goodwitch, I know we can use aura, but what about our semblance?" Jaune asked, seemingly unaware that Cardin took this opportunity to attack Jaune. He ran up and went for an overhead swing with his mace. Jaune, however, could hear the mace slicing through the air, so he took a large step back and let the mace hit the floor, causing it to crack in a straight line in front of Cardin. Before Cardin could ready his mace again, Jaune planted his foot just below the head of the mace and jabbed Cardin with the butt of his sword, causing him to stumble back and lose the grip of his mace. He held his stomach with one hand and held up a fist with the other and waited for Jaune to attack, but Jaune continued to look at Ms. Goodwitch expectantly.

She was stunned that Jaune didn't seem fazed by what just happened, she shrugged and said, "There are no rules for this fight, so do as you wish." Jaune smiled at her words and sheathed his sword.

"Thanks ma'am, the sword is kinda boring sometimes." He said as he raised his fists into a classic boxer stand. "White Dragon's Fist," he called out as his fists were engulfed by two spheres of white aura. "So what do you say Cardin, round two?" Jaune asked with excitement in his voice.

Cardin brought his hands up, but he wasn't planning on going with just a fist fight. His main priority was to retrieve his weapon. 'That way I'll get an advantage over that cocky blonde,' Cardin thought cleverly. Cardin kept eyeing his mace that was currently laying in front of Jaune's feet, trying to figure out how to get to it without sustaining too much damage. This didn't go unnoticed by Jaune, who traced Cardin's gaze until his own fell upon the mace at his feet.

"Oh do you want your mace?" Jaune asked, even though he knew the answer if his teasing smirk was anything to go on.

Cardin looked shocked, 'Damn! Was I really that obvious?' he thought. He was mentally slapping himself, but was nearly knocked out of his gaze by his mace flying towards his head. As it was about to collide with him, he caught it by the handle and grasped it with two hands. Jaune started walking towards Cardin slowly with his hands still raised, eyes staring straight into Cardin's own.

'His mace has some sort of explosive dust crystal in it, I could smell that much when he went to hit me the first time. So as long as I avoid that, I'll be fine. He's pretty slow and that mace doesn't help at all.' Jaune thought with a smile. Cardin growled and ran towards Jaune and aimed for his ribs with a horizontal swing. Jaune countered by leaning back far enough so the mace glided over his stomach. Cardins momentum caused him to spin once and lose his footing for a moment. As he regained his balance, Jaune shot back up and sent a right hook into Cardin's jaw. Cardin tumbled back from the force, but regained his footing and raised his weapon, ready to block. Jaune didn't move again form his position. Instead he was bouncing slightly using his feet, like he was trying to warm up his body.

Jaune smiled at Cardin, not a cocky smile, or a smile of victory, but just a friendly smile. "C'mon, show me what'chu got!" Jaune yelled. Cardin lost control of his anger again and charged at Jaune, going for his legs with another sweeping swing. Jaune jumped into the air to dodge the blow, but Cardin had planned on his dodging ability this time. Cardin planned to use the momentum from his swing to spin once and hit Jaune in the chest while he was still in the air. Jaune's eyes widened as he crossed his arms in front of his chest to block. Cardin's mace hit Jaune's forearms and sent Jaune flying across the arena floor. Cardin expected Jaune to have both of his arms broken, nobody had ever taken a hit from his mace and came out intact, but Jaune recovered quickly and used the distance to use a ranged attack.

"White Dragons Holy Breath!" He yelled, sending a white beam of aura towards Cardin. He didn't use a large amount of his power into it, but the effect still sent Cardin into a wall, knocking him out cold. Cardin's aura dropped into the red zone, and with that, Jaune was the winner.

Jaune walked out of the arena and into the bleachers where his team was. As he sat down, Pyrrha began to complement him. "Jaune that was incredible!" Pyrrha exclaimed. She was praising her partner and leader, who was scratching the back of his head with a smile.

"It was just a fight, nothing more, nothing less," he said. Nora smiled and leaned forward from the seat behind Jaune.

"That was so cool! You blew up Cardin!" she said while giggling. Ren just nodded and smiled.

"That was a good match Jaune," he complimented.

Jaune looked down, embarrassed, "Thanks guys," he said. Jaune touched one if his arms with his hand where he had taken the mace to and winched. This didn't go unnoticed by Pyrrha, "Are you alright Jaune?"

Jaune looked up and smiled, "Yeah, but a bit sore." He said. Pyrrha didn't think so.

"You took that mace directly into your arms, you may have a lot of aura, but that attack sent you back quite a bit. Your arms could be fractured or something. Roll up your sleeves." Pyrrha said. Jaune smiled again, "Really Pyrrha, it's fine." Pyrrha was getting annoyed, "Roll up your sleeves Jaune, you could be seriously damaged."

"Really it's fine-,"

"Then roll up your sleeves."

"No, my arms are fine."

"Roll up your sleeves Jaune."

"No, I-ACK." His sentence was cut off by Pyrrha tackling him and trying to pull his sleeves up. Thinking that this was a game, Nora jumped into the wrestling match and began to help Pyrrha with Jaune's sleeves, who pleaded for them to stop. The two girls eventually were able to see his bare forearms. Nora laughed and commented on how much fun that was while Pyrrha focused on the actual reason they had their 'fun'.

There was a large bruise on both of Jaune's arms, which was surprising, since that seemed to be the least of the damage done. What she saw that was more surprising was that the bruises weren't going away. Jaune wasn't healing. She had noticed with Jaune's forehead from the cafeteria fight with Cardin that he was bleeding. While the bleeding had stopped a while ago, the cut was still there, also not healing. "Jaune, why aren't you using your aura to heal yourself?"Pyrrha asked, this rose Ren's interest.

He was now listening carefully, waiting for Jaunes answer. Jaune seemed a bit nervous, he obviously didn't want to tell them. "I can't, let's just leave it at that." He said hesitantly, clearly withholding information.

Pyrrha looked at him curiously, "What do you mean you can't?" she asked.

Jaune looked at her in the eyes, "Like I said, I just can't. I'm not going into any more detail than that. You've already heard enough weird secrets from me for one day. Trying to get me to say a second one is just pushing your luck." Jaune said sternly. With that, the conversation was dropped. They all turned their heads to listen to Ms. Goodwitch, who was giving one final announcement and that in a few days they will be heading into Forever Falls to collect tree sap. She ended her speech and sent the students to leave the arena so they can finish their days.

"Jaune Arc..." she muttered. She had also noticed that his aura wasn't healing him. She heard JNPRs entire conversation. "This may need to be something to discuss with Ozpin." She said


	8. Chapter 8

The next few days passed quickly for Jaune. His classes weren't too difficult and his combat class was extremely fun for him. Jaune hadn't lost a single sparring match yet, much to his surprise, but nobody else's. He noticed that most of his sparring partners looked nervous, but he shrugged it off when the matches started.

Now he was in the forest of Forever Fall with his team, under the supervision of Miss Goodwitch. She warned them of the local Grimm around the forest and told the students never to go off on their own. She could practically see Jaunes disappointment with her statement. He wanted to fight more Grimm. Instead he was handing empty jars to Pyrrha while she filled them with sap from individual trees. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Nora kept eating the sap that Ren was collecting. He kept telling her not to, but there was just no stopping Nora. Jaune sighed, looks like he and Pyrrha will have to collect enough for all of them. After an hour and a half of sap collecting, Jaune was starting to get extremely bored. He expected to get attacked by something. Pyrrha finally noticed when she looked over and saw him leaning on his sword.

"Something wrong Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.

Jaune shrugged, "Just bored, nothing to worry about."

Pyrrha smiled, "Well if we hurry up we might just be able to go back early."

Jaune seemed to brighten up a bit at this, "Alright then," he said. While Pyrrha was busy collecting sap, Jaune took a large inhale of the air. He could smell the sweetness of the sap, the crushed leaves that gave off a faint, but enjoyable scent. He could also smell his teammates and friends, their individual scents were calming to him. However, he noticed that there was a new scent. It didn't belong to anyone he knew, but it was strangely familiar. He couldn't place a finger on it but it gave him chills. Jaune couldn't stand not knowing what it was, he needed to find out what was giving off such an ominous scent.

"Hey Pyrrha, I'm gonna walk for a bit, my legs are gettin' stiff." He said. Pyrrha looked puzzled, "But we aren't allowed to go anywhere alone, you know that." Jaune just smiled, "Don't worry I won't go too far, and besides I can handle myself." Before she had a chance to answer, he was jogging away.

After almost a half a mile, he slowed his pace to a slow walk. "It was around here somewhere," Jaune whispered to himself. What he didn't know was that he wasn't alone. The smell was stronger where he currently was, but he still couldn't find what he was looking for.

"Hello there handsome," a feminine voice spoke. Jaune spun around quickly with his hand on the handle of his sword. Standing before him was a woman around his age, if not slightly older with dark hair with blue steaks and black eyes. Her skin was pale and she had a few small freckles on her face. She wore rather revealing clothing, showing off her stomach, most of her legs and her somewhat ample cleavage. Her smile was anything but welcoming to Jaune.

"Hello ma'am, are you lost?" he said uneasily, releasing his tight grip on the handle of his blade. He knew there was something off about this girl, but he didn't know what yet.

"My my, what a gentleman," she said. She began to slowly walk towards him, swaying her hips with each step. Jaune just tilted his head, oblivious to her method of seduction.

"What are you doing in Forever Falls miss…?" he was hoping to get a bit of information out of her. She stopped walking just a few inches away from him. He could practically feel her breath. "I'm sorry handsome, but just telling you who I am would ruin the fun of finding out for yourself, wouldn't it?"

She brought up both of her hands and placed them gently on Jaunes face. He was starting to get uncomfortable. Before he had a chance to explain she leaned in close to his ear and whispered, "I do know who you are however, Jaune Arc." Jaune quickly stepped back, away from her grasp. "How do you know my name?" he asked, genuinely curious.

She tilted her head and smiled, "Because my master knows you very well, white dragon slayer." She said. Jaune froze, 'her master knows me, and knows that I'm a dragon slayer? This is getting stranger by the second,' he thought. "Alright then answer me this, why are you here? If your master sent you, what makes me so important?" Jaune asked. His hand slowly went back to his sword, which was hard to sneak past the woman who was inches from him.

"Well, let's just say you've proven to be more… intriguing than the other dragon slayers I've met." Jaunes eyes went wide, 'She's met the other ones?' He blinked a few times, "Okay then, how is it that I stand out from the rest of them?" He asked.

"For starters, you're the first one who hasn't tried to kill me on sight. The other dragon slayers are a bit untrusting. Second, I already know that you're far more powerful than any of them are, but you tend not to use most of the power you've been so generously given." The woman finished her sentence with a smile, but it wasn't a comforting one. Jaune tilted his head, 'What does that mean…. Wait a second,' Jaune's eyes went into a glare as he pulled out his sword, the woman immediately jumped back, but her smile didn't falter.

"How could you possibly know that?!" Jaune demanded. The woman put a finger on her lips in thought, "I have my sources, I actually know quite a lot about you and your powers, some things even you don't know."

Jaune had heard enough, he pointed his sword at her, "Fine then, if that's all you need, then please leave. As much as I'd like to fight you, and trust me, I REALLY want to fight you," He said with violent intent, but lowered his sword, "I'm currently on a class trip and my team is waiting for me, so get the hell out of here." The woman laughed at his threat. Her voice similar to that of a fallen angel.

"There's the reaction I was hoping for, you might want to calm down though. You're starting to leak your power a bit." Jaune removed his glare from her to look at himself, and sure enough, his aura was leaking from his body. White mist was steaming off his face, arms, and legs. He started to panic, 'This has never happened before! What the hell?! How is its power leaking? I can only access this power through the white dust capsules!' Jaune thought. He shook his head vigorously before looking back at the woman, who had an amused look on her face. The mist was starting to dissipate.

"How did you do that," he said in a low voice, "Answer me!"

The woman remained what appeared to be amused, "I didn't do anything, you tapped into that power with your own violent emotions." Jaune didn't know what to say, but he started to remember back when he was younger. When he received a power that he didn't want from the bandit. The man who was also on Jaune's hate list, Roman Torchwick.

"Tell that bastard Roman to go to hell," he said quietly, "In fact, tell him that I'll take him there for what he did to me."

The woman gave him a curious look at this, "Why would you be mad at him for what he gave you? He put so much time and money into you, and you were given even more power than what you had. Shouldn't you be happy?"

"I am anything BUT happy about what he did," Jaune stated, "I don't like being toyed with as an experiment, I don't like having my pride as a dragon slayer crushed by accepting power that isn't my own. And I certainly don't like being the cause of so much destruction because of this god damn lacrima!" He yelled, pointing his thumb at his chest.

The woman frowned, "I'm pretty sure you're the only person who would ever feel that way. If you're given power, you should use it to your advantage, not seal it off like some sort of disease."

Jaune looked away from her, "I don't care. I don't need this lacrima crystal. My power given to me by my father is more than enough for me to be happy. I will get my revenge with my own power, I swear it." He growled. The woman leapt to a nearby branch, "Well this chat has been so enlightening, but I must be off. I will definitely see you again, I can promise you that." Before she could leap off of her tree towards a random direction, she froze, as if she remembered something, "Oh and by the way, you might want to assist the brute with a mace, I can imagine he'd have his hands full right about now."

Before Jaune could question her, she vanished. 'What did she mean by that? What brute?' He sniffed the air, in hopes to find whatever she was referring to. His nose picked up Cardin and his team, the scent of sap, and the scent of a Grimm not to far from them, and closing in on them.

"Time for some stress relief," he said before he dashed off towards team CRDL.

Yeah, almost lost hope on this, but I gotta keep going even though I've made everything way too confusing. Kinda hard to think of things to add to this sometimes. But as always I enjoy reviews. Also check out my other storys, they're all still in progress, but people seem to like them, so I'll get more chapters out when school isn't a pain in my ass.


	9. Chapter 9

'Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!' is all Jaune could think as he sprinted towards the direction where Cardin was, who was covered in sap with an Ursa nearby. He was running faster than he thought he could ever manage. He could hear branches snapping under his feet and leaves being stirred up into the air by the gust left behind by him.

After a minute and a half of non-stop running, Jaune could smell just how close Cardin was, and how the Ursa was much closer to Cardin than he was. 'Please let me make it in time to save that dumb bastard!' he screamed in his mind, motivating his legs to move faster. Jaune could finally see the clearing ahead of him. The sun was shining too much for him to see the situation in from of him. As he broke through the tree line, his mind began to quickly process the situation ahead of him. Cardin was standing still, most likely out of fear and shock, with no weapon and his guard lowered. Cardin was face to face with, unfortunately for him, an Ursa, more specifically, an Ursa Major. The Ursa Major itself was twice towered over Cardin, covered in multiple layers of bone plating. From the looks of it, it was an older Grimm, meaning it had some experience with fighting other creatures, or hunters. Cardins eyes grew wide with fear. The great Grimm was stood on its hind legs and it was bringing its right arm back with the intent to kill Cardin.

"My team… just left me," Jaune could hear Cardin mutter as he got closer. Time seemed to slow down for Jaune as he tried to consider his options. His hands gripped tightly to his sword and shield as he sent his mind into overdrive to think of a way to save Cardin without getting them both too injured.

'Dammit! I don't have enough time for a ranged attack!' Jaune was directly in between Cardin and the Ursa Major, and the only plan he could think of wasn't in his favor, but it was the only one he could work with at the moment. Jaune brought up his shield in front of him, facing the Ursa Major while he kicked his legs into Cardins chest, knocking him down. The Ursa Majors claw connected into Jaunes shield with immense force, sending him flying over the fallen Cardin, who was dazed about what just happened. Jaune recovered after tumbling across the ground several times. He was on one knee, holding his shield in front of him and his sword to his side. He was in pain, but not enough to keep him down.

The Ursa seemed to be more interested in Jaune now, seemingly to have forgotten about Cardin. Jaune pushed himself to his feet with the help of his sword. "What are you still doing here asshole?! Get out!" Jaune yelled at Cardin. Cardin blinked a few times before Jaune's words truly registered in his mind. Instantly he stood back up and ran into the woods, looking at Jaune once more before leaving him to deal with the Ursa Major.

"Okay big guy, I'm not having such a good day. So if you could just die, that would be great." Jaune said as he readied himself. The Ursa Major got on all fours and charged towards Jaune. Jaune poked his head out from behind the shield, "White Dragon's Roar!" He yelled as the white laser left his mouth. Jaune immediately noticed a problem, the laser wasn't as big as it normally was, it was actually quite pitiful. Once the laser connected to the Ursa's protected head, it faded away, barely leaving a scratch on the bone plate.

"Oh shi-!" was all Jaune could say before the Ursa's head connected to Jaunes shield, forcing him to slide back. Jaune knew that if he tripped, he would have been trampled, so he held his ground against the beast, refusing to fall. Jaune looked back and saw that they were quickly getting close to several trees. Jaune had to make a decision, either move away from the Ursa pushing him, or see how many trees he could be crashed into before he dies. The latter not being the most desirable of decisions, Jaune stabbed his sword into the back of the Ursa and pulled himself over the Grimm. Unfortunately, once he was above the Grimm's back, he lost his grip on his sword. So now he stood behind the Ursa Major with only his shield.

Before the Ursa could turn around, finally noticing the lack of his target not in front of it, Jaune attempted to use his 'White Dragon's Fist,' but once his aura surrounded his unarmed hand, it flickered and vanished. Jaune cursed and began to think of why his power was so low. His mind kept coming back to the woman he had met only a few minutes ago, and how he lost control.

"That damned bitch, she made me lose my power," he whispered, remembering when she had brought his restraint to its peak, but even though he didn't attack her, his reserve power had leaked. That shouldn't have even been possible. That power was sealed, but that woman had forced that power open, now leaving him fatigued.

The Ursa Major growled before charging towards Jaune again. Jaune quickly opened the capsule compartment in his shield, thankfully taking the Ursa's charge directly filled up one of his white dust capsules. He opened the capsule and swallowed the white dust. He could feel his power returning to him, giving his energy back.

"Let's try this again, White Dragon's Roar!" Jaune yelled once again, firing another laser, this time with much more power. The laser shattered the skull plating of the Ursa Major, leaving its head exposed. Jaune brought back his unarmed fist, building up his power and waiting for the right moment.

'I don't have enough power to use Holy Nova, but this'll have to do,' Jaune thought as he used one of his favorite moves.

"White Dragon's Claw!" Jaune yelled as his fingers connected with the Ursa Major's head. As soon as his fingers connected, Jaune rolled to the side, avoiding momentum of the now frozen Ursa Major. Jaune causally walked up the side of it and pulled his sword out from its back. He then walked over to look at it directly in its eyes.

"You were lucky to have survived this long. If I was having a good day, you would have lost much sooner." And with one quick swing, Jaune decapitated his opponent, letting its body fall to the ground with a loud 'thud'. Jaune inhaled the air again, smelling his comrades close by. 'Cherries, Roses, and snow eh?' Jaune thought to himself while smiling.

"You can come out now, no use in hiding from this nose," Jaune said as he pointed to his tool of smelling. He heard the rustling of leaves and looked towards the direction of the noise. Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha all stared at him with wide eyes. Truth be told, they got to Cardin and the Ursa's location before he did, but he arrived only seconds after.

"Enjoy the show?" Jaune asked as he spread his hands over the battlefield, as if to present his 'show.' The three girls didn't know what to say. They were actually surprised at what Jaune had done. They saw him go from near death to good as new just by swallowing something.

"How on earth did you pull that off? You were so exhausted a second ago, we thought we had to jump in to save you!" Weiss yelled. Jaune tossed the empty dust capsule towards Weiss, who caught it clumsily.

"I've already told Ruby this before, but I don't mind doing it again I guess. My sword and shield produce dust out of the energy they deal with a strike or block. I am technically the only person who can make and use this dust, known as White Dragon Slayer Dust, or just white dust. So I have a type of dust your family couldn't ever hope to use," Jaune said teasingly while sticking his tongue out at the heiress. She in return, tried to freeze him with her ice dust, but he jumped out of the way and started to run away from the girl attempting to turn him into a Jaune-sickle.

"What is going on here?" The girls and one guy turned to see Glynda with the rest of the students in tow. Nora and Yang gave the group a worried look from over the teacher's shoulder. Ren and Blake seemed indifferent to the situation. Jaune looked at the group and saw team CRDL bringing up the rear. Cardin was both ashamed and pissed at his team. His team could easily sense their leaders move and felt guilty in return. As Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha started to explain the situation to Glynda, Jaune approached Cardin, who already saw Jaune coming towards, steeling himself for whatever Jaune was about to say.

"Hey Cardin," Jaune said with a wave, Cardin just looked at the ground. Jaune decided to make things brief. He knew Cardin's pride was already hurt, Jaune knew that feeling, so he sympathized. But what he was about to say would become important for the future of Cardin.

"All I'm going to say is… respect your fellow student. They might just end up saying your ass, like I did. Next time it could be Velvet. Think about that." And with that, Jaune walked back towards his team and friends, who were finishing their explanation of the dead Grimm. Jaune snuck back into Glynda's view as she nodded towards the three that saw the situation.

"Good job Mr. Arc. As for the rest of you, this trip is over. Let's return to Beacon before more Grimm appear." The students nodded or mumbled in agreement as they began to walk back towards the school.


	10. Chapter 10

This is the first of possibly a few backstory chapters. Hopefully this explains a few things a bit more as this progresses.

Jaune had been wandering around for days in tattered clothing, eating only the scraps he could find. He was tired, hurt, and in terrible emotional pain. His father had been slain right in front of him only a week ago in cold blood. Jaune tried to fight the murderer, but the black dragon proved to be too much for him. The black dragon, Acnologia however, didn't think much of the boy, so he left him with presumably fatal wounds before ascending into the night sky. The dragon did not account for Jaune's immense aura to heal the wounds so they stopped bleeding, but it still wasn't developed enough to heal the wounds completely. Jaune knew the wounds would leave ugly scars, but he couldn't care less.

Jaune didn't even know where he was, he was drifting through the wounds, avoiding any Grimm his nose could pick up, until he somehow found a town. He was able to sneak through security and hide away into an alley, that is, until Jaune heard gunshots and loud demands from a store nearby. Even in Jaune's pitiful state, he couldn't turn away from a criminal action. He slowly stood up and hurried over to the noise.

Jaune found several men in black and red suits either carrying blades or guns. They were holding up a burly shopkeeper, who looked like he was about to cry. Jaune didn't say anything heroic or try to stop the men robbing the store. Instead he began to unleash utter havoc on the suited men. He took quite a few by surprise, but his energy was still low. He used his sword to slash at the legs of the taller men and used his shield to block incoming attacks. He refrained from using his dragon slayer abilities since he needed all of his energy and aura just to keep attacking. He soon began to tire and leave himself exposed. The suited men took advantage of this and easily disarmed him. He was only left with his shield. One suited man with a blade went to attack Jaune from behind. Jaune knew it was coming, but out of instinct he used his 'White Dragon's Fist' to knock the man unconscious. Even though it was his weakest attack, it drained him. He attempted to use one of the white dust capsules in his shield to replenish himself, but the capsule was shot out of his hand by what seemed like a firework.

"Come on guys, you were all getting beaten by some kid? This is just embarrassing," Jaune turned his glare to see an orange haired man smoking a cigar and leaning on his cane. Jaune growled and threw himself at the man, but the man merely sidestepped and smacked Jaune on the top of the head with the end of his cane, knocking him out. He was about to shoot Jaune to end his existence, but one of his goons held the vial that was shot out of Jaune's hand up to him. The man grabbed it and studied it closely.

"Well this is… strange. This looks like dust, but I've never seen it before. Alright, new plan, grab the runt and his weapons. Also take as much dust as you can from here. We can't just leave it here can we?" The man said while smiling towards the shopkeeper, who was cowering behind his desk. He snapped his fingers which signaled his goons to do what they were told.

Jaune woke up with a large headache and a sore body. He didn't want to open his eyes until scenes from the events that lead up to his current state flashed into his mind. His eyes flew open and he tried to sit up, but found he was currently bound by several restraints around his body. He was lying on a metal table with a large light looming over him. Jaune tried to turn his head, but that too, was restrained. He did have one thing going for him though, he felt a bit healthier. Whoever took him must've seen his state of health and fed him. Unfortunately, He still wasn't strong enough to break the bindings.

"Hello young man," Jaune moved his eyes to see who called to him, but the person was staying out of sight for the time being.

"I know you must be very confused and even possibly scared right now," the man continued.

"I don't fear you," Jaune spat back in retaliation.

"Well, aren't you the brave one? You must understand the situation you are in. Let me explain. You are currently in what is known as a laboratory, can you say laboratory?" the man laughed. Jaune just growled. Which made the man laugh harder.

"Sorry, I'm not too good with kids," the man explained jokingly, "Well as I was saying, you're in a lab. Which is owned by one of the most dangerous criminal organizations known to Remnant. I am currently the leader of said organization." Jaune could hear footsteps slowly approaching him, but still out of his line of sight.

"You would actually be dead right now if I wasn't feeling merciful right now, but my good will comes with a price," the man said. Jaune then saw an outstretched hand towards his eyes. Held in the fingers of said hand was one of the white dust capsules, the same one Jaune intended to drink to regain his power. Jaunes eyes widened.

"Ah, so you recognize this, hm? Well I'll tell you what. I have no idea what this is other than it is some sort of dust. I myself could be considered… a dust expert." The man chuckled. "But this dust is unlike any I've ever seen. I looked at your weapons and found a total of five other vials, but they were all empty. Now why is it that you only had one filled up? I would assume that is because this is a rare dust, since I've never seen it, but then why would you carry around empty vials. Why not just dispose of them? So we did a little bit of testing with your shield and found that it had a special property to it. It had aura imprinted into it." The man said, sounding like he was interested in what he was saying.

"So we did the same thing with your sword and guess what? It had the same thing! Now I thought that this was interesting. But I'm rambling, I'm going to assume you knew all of this. So I'm going to get to the point. We messed around with this dust, and I found something interesting. It appears to be some sort of enhancing dust, but we can't seem to figure out how it works. Would you care to enlighten us?" Jaune could tell the man was smiling from the shadows he hid himself behind. Jaune didn't know how to respond. Does it matter if he told this man? He knew he shouldn't, but he knew his situation. However, what Jaune said next somehow didn't surprise the man.

"Go to hell," Jaune said. Suddenly a cane was brought down onto Jaune's still healing chest, causing him to cough violently. He was definitely not enjoying his stay here.

"Now, now, don't be like that boy. I just want to know a little more about this dust. I've been told that you have an interesting power. You used a small, but focused amount of aura to give one of my men internal bleeding. That is commendable, for sure. But I have a feeling that there is more to you than that. So how about this? If I let you go, you work for me and tell me how to use this dust. You get money and food, I get information and man power, what do you say?" Now Jaune was getting extremely mad. This man had just offered him to work for him as a criminal. Jaune wasn't going to let this slide.

"Okay fine, I'll tell you. But I can't let anyone else hear it, just you." Jaune sighed in defeat, or that's what it seemed like to the man. Before the man could speak, Jaune caught his attention again, "I know there are others in this room, I can smell them." Jaune could hear a few smart remarks and a 'hey!' here and there. After a few moments, the man accepted Jaune's terms.

'I can't believe he fell for this,' Jaune said. He didn't care what happened to him right now, all he wanted was to show the man that this dragon slayer wasn't going to be used. He could see the man's ear cupped in his free hand, his other hand was tapping his cane impatiently. Jaune leaned in as best he could and whispered

'White Dragon's Roar,'

A white laser was shot out of Jaune's mouth towards the man's ear, but the man's reflexes were far better than Jaune thought. the man was able to dodge the attack unharmed, but the ceiling above them had a small hole in it. The man growled at Jaune.

"I'm going to make your stay here a living hell until you give me what I want." He said. Jaune felt a needle go into his arm, and after a few moments, his eyes closed and he fell into a deep slumber.


	11. Chapter 11

Warning, this gets dark. This is probably the longest chapter I've typed so far, it may seem kind of rushed. I'm also going to be editing my first few chapters so it's not like reading a wall of text as I've been told.

Jaune spent the next two months in a dark, cramped cell, bound by chains and fed the bare minimum. He wouldn't have even accepted the food if he didn't have his desire for revenge to push him forward. He spent day and night trying to figure out a way to escape, but with his lack of strength, he couldn't even move.

Jaune noticed that recently, there were fewer men in black and red suits and more men and women wearing masks that resembled Grimm. They were mostly concealed, but every once in a while he could see an animal appendage. He had a very small window from which he could see out of, the window where food was allowed access through. He noticed a slight increase of food in his meals every once in a while, it seemed these faunas took pity on him.

One day, someone actually decided to talk to him. Jaune made very little attempts to respond, but one thing the person said compelled him to speak.

"I'm sorry for what is happening to you here," the voice said. The voice was high pitched and full of sorrow. He assumed it was a girl around his age.

After a long pause, Jaune finally responded. "I don't know if I should feel anger towards you for apologizing, or thanking you for actually having a heart." He said quietly, his voice cracking from his lack of talking.

"We aren't heartless, at least, most of us aren't. I know what we're doing here is wrong, but this is all I have left to fight for. You are somehow a key factor in completing our goal." The girl said.

"Then what is this goal? Why does it involve me?" Jaune questioned as he attempted to lean forward.

"We want to be seen as equals. We want what was promised to us. We want faunas to be seen as equals." The girl said, "As for why you are important, I'm not sure. The only one who knows is that bastard Torchwick." The girl said with a growl.

Another long pause occurred, "Why do you work for him then?" Jaune asked.

The girl sighed, "Even though I don't want to, the higher-ups of our organization have changed from our usual peace-rally method to a method far more cruel. They saw our pacifistic movements yielding no results, so they got desperate and turned to forcing people to fear us. Roman decided to help us by funding our movements, but in exchange we have to do his dirty work." The girl finished with a scowl.

"But you're different. You know what you're doing is wrong, you can change what your group is doing." Jaune said. He could tell that the girl was upset.

Before the girl could respond, another voice spoke up. One he had never heard before.

"Are you talking to the prisoner? You know we aren't allowed to talk to trash like him." The voice said with a cold and smooth voice.

"No, I just finished feeding him, that's all." The girl responded.

After a few seconds, the man spoke up again, "Good, come on. We have a new mission." The man said.

"Okay," the girl quietly replied. Jaune heard their footsteps slowly fade away until he was left with silence again. Jaune sighed.

"I guess I'm not the only one who's trapped here huh?" he said to himself.

After another week, Jaune was moved back onto a metal table, bound by leather straps with a light above him. 'This is the same place from before,' Jaune concluded.

"Hello again brat," A man's voice said. Jaune now knew who's name to label that voice to. Roman Torchwick.

Jaune just grunted, not wanting to provide the criminal with any more amusement.

"I'm sure you want to get back to your comfy cell as soon as possible, so I'll make this quick. You know that white dust we got from you? Well we've been studying it's uses. We found out a while ago that it's some sort of enhancement dust, which I know you're aware off, so that got me thinking. How can we make it better?" Roman had an amused smile on his face. Jaune could see Roman from his peripheral vision.

"To answer that, we've made a copy of the exact elements of your dust, which wasn't easy by the way. Then we combined the dust with other enhancement dusts we had around, and guess what we made?" Roman paused for a moment, as if waiting for Jaune to answer. Roman laughed.

"Well I can tell your curiosity is piqued," Roman said sarcastically, "Anyways, we made… well we aren't sure what to call it, so we just went with lacrima crystal, don't ask why we are calling it that. But just what does this lacrima crystal do?" Roman asked again. Jaune still refused to even ask.

"I've found out that your white dust only lasts until you use up its power, but this crystal generates its own power! If we gave this to someone, who knows how powerful they'd become, now you might be wondering, why am I telling you all of this?" Roman asked AGAIN, this was starting to piss Jaune off.

"I don't care," Jaune growled, Roman laughed again.

"You might want to change that answer, because guess who is basically disposable at this point and would make a great test?" Jaune finally looked at Roman, only to see a cane pointed at his face.

"You!" Roman yelled. Immediately after, several masked people entered the room and held Jaune down from various places. Jaune's eyes grew wide with panic when he saw one carrying a large knife. He looked back at Roman, who shrugged.

"We have to get the crystal inside you some way, right?" Roman said with a bored expression.

The masked person with the knife leaned in closer, but hesitated.

"Sir, can't we at least, you know, knock the kid out or something?" the masked person said in a rough voice.

"Why should we? The result is the same, this is just more interesting to watch." Roman said with a smile. Jaune didn't want to give Roman the pleasure of hearing him beg, but Jaune was never good at handling pain when he couldn't fight back. Jaune kept his mouth and eyes shut until he finally felt the blade slowly open up his chest.

Jaune wanted to scream in pain, he wanted to retaliate and resist as more incisions were made across his chest over his scars he had received from Acnologia. Since his aura was extremely low when he received them, he couldn't heal properly.

At his sides were a few more maksed people, using their aura as life support for Jaune. Jaune opened his eyes and avoided looking at his open chest, instead focusing on Roman handing the crystal off to another masked person, who nodded.

Finally the blade stopped cutting into his chest, and the man stepped out of the way, under his mask was a look of disgust directed at himself. In his place stood the masked person with the crystal. Jaune could see it up close now.

It had rigid edges and it seemed to be glowing white. It wasn't all that big, but Jaune knew that he would still feel it. The masked person slowly inserted the crystal into his chest, causing Jaune to hold back a scream. He could hear the masked person chanting a few words and saw their arms glowing. Jaune could feel his aura slowly returning to him.

The lacrima was now intertwined with his aura. Roman was smiling at his success, but he quickly frowned when he saw Jaune starting to flail about on the table. The White Fang members held him down firmly, but Jaune was slowly getting stronger, forcing the members to use more strength.

Jaune was feeling pain that was now unimaginable, the lacrima wasn't in sync with his aura, rather, Jaune's body was trying to reject it entirely. He began to glow, his body temperature rose, and the braces began to melt. The members had to step away from him to avoid getting burned. The cuts in Jaune's chest were healing rapidly due to the excessive amount of aura flowing through him. Jaune slowly sat up, barely able to stay conscious from the pain.

"Someone put him under now!" Roman ordered. A few White Fang members scrambled to retrieve gas and fluids to inject into Jaune to make him fall asleep, but Jaune was faster. He may be in pain, but due to Roman's mistake of giving him a large source of power, Jaune knew this was his chance to escape.

"White Dragon's Holy Breath!" Jaune yelled as the energy left his mouth. Jaune planned on using the explosion it would cause as his chance to escape. Any damage he might obtain from the blast radius in the small room would heal quickly.

The blast created a large flash of light, knocking over several White Fang members and Roman. Roman however, recovered quickly and fled, in fear of Jaune attacking him directly. Jaune was also flown backwards into a wall, but he staggered to his feet and made his way out the door.

Jaune wasn't going to leave without his weapons. He used his nose to find their scent, which wasn't hard. Roman had left them in a room just down the hall form where Jaune was. Jaune grabbed his sword and shield and moved as fast as he could to find an exit.

After only five minutes of searching, Jaune couldn't find anything, Jaune grew impatient and resorted to making his own exit, even if he had to level the building. He used various attacks to destroy wall after wall until he could finally see sunlight. With one last attack, he destroyed the wall and squinted at the sudden light that penetrated his eyes.

Despite his pain, he smiled as he gazed at his surroundings. He looked back and saw where he was for the past several months, an abandoned factory in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Jaune felt the pain in his chest again and fell to one knee.

"I'm going to destroy this evil place. Right now!" Jaune yelled as he slowly rose again. He was mentally preparing himself to use a move he had only used once before, and only because his father had given him enough power to use it at the time. Jaune formed a large ball of aura in front of him and inhaled…

"White Dragon's Holy Ray!" As the words left his mouth, several smaller missles of aura left the larger sphere, curving and destroying different parts of the building. He could hear the cries of others in the building as they ran to different underground safe rooms. At this point Jaune didn't care if any of them lived or died. They had helped make his life miserable by forcing a crystal that not only was giving him extreme pain, but extreme grief. The white dust that had been given to him by his father had been corrupted into a vial thing that would only cause pain in the future.

After Jaune felt satisfied with his work, he finally succumbed to the immense pain that was only being held back by his will power. His vision faded to black.

Jaune opened his eyes slowly and found himself in much less pain than earlier, but it was still there. He saw that he was under a soft blanket and placed in a white room. Jaune looked around him and saw someone watching him from a feat only about a foot away.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," the person spoke in a calm voice. Jaune's eyes finally focused on the person. He had silver hair and a green scarf. He also had small glasses with an unusual frame. His expression was calm and relaxed.

"Hello," Jaune said quietly. He wasn't sure if he should even ask at this point. He had already been through hell, he just wanted to slow down a bit.

"What is your name?" the man asked. Jaune was hesitant, but responded anyways.

"Jaune Arc," he said. He kept his answer simple.

"Well, you may call me Ozpin." The man stated calmly. Jaune felt relaxed around him.

There was a long silence, but suddenly memories returned to Jaune. He felt regret and sadness for what he did to the people inside the building. He practically buried them alive.

"I killed them," Jaune said as he held back his tears while burying his head in his hands. He didn't care that Ozpin was watching him, he couldn't stop his emotions. "I'm a monster."

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, "Actually, you didn't kill anyone. Although you did harm quite a few White Fang members, none were announced dead. Just injured and buried under the ruble." Ozpin said, still in a calm voice.

"R-really?" Jaune said, unsure how to feel. He may not have killed anyone, but he certainly meant to at the time, he wasn't sure if that made him a criminal.

"But I still caused them harm. I'm just another criminal," Jaune choked back another sob.

"In your case, you were defending yourself against a terrorist organization, in the process you've destroyed one of their hideouts outside a major city. So in this case you could be considered a hero," Ozpin said. Jaune looked directly at him in disbelief.

"How can I be considered a hero? I wanted to harm those people, to KILL those people. Anyone with my mindset should be considered a criminal." Jaune said, his words choked and strained.

"Despite how you feel, you are on the side of good. But if that's how you feel, I can offer a way to redeem yourself." Ozpin said. Jaune blinked.

"How?"

Ozpin smiled, "I am the headmaster of Beacon, one of the most prestigious hunter academies known to Remnant. The next semester is only a few months away, and I could easily get you in if you're willing to put in the effort to learn. In your case you will be redeeming yourself by helping those who cannot help themselves by being a hunter." Ozpin said.

Jaune didn't know what to think, but his mouth spoke for him.

"I accept sir," Jaune said, still choking on his words. Ozpin smiled and took another sip of his coffee.

After half an hour of silence, Jaune remembered he wasn't in a large amount of pain. He figured Ozpin must've had something to do with it.

"Sir, how did you numb my pain? When I was awake it was unbearable." Jaune asked, his voice finally normal after calming down.

Ozpin looked down for a moment, then back to Jaune.

"When the authorities found you, you were unconscious just outside of the factory. They brought you into this hospital and you became big news. You've actually been asleep for two weeks." Jaune eyes grew wide at this, but he didn't ask, "When I heard rumors about a hidden base being destroyed by one teenager, I was intrigued. When I arrived to this room, you were obviously still in pain, even in your comatose state. I checked with the doctors here and found that you were mostly fine physically, but your aura was beyond anything we had ever seen. After a few scans we found a crystal imbedded inside your chest, but it was too risky to remove it due to it being directly linked to your aura. If we removed it, there was a chance it could kill you." Ozpin paused, trying to figure out how to word his next explanation.

"I had to use your aura to seal the power of the crystal, but in doing so, I have caused your aura to become… more fragile in a sense. Since the crystal was doing damage to your body, the healing aspect of your aura is now completely focused on healing the wounds the lacrima is making. I am currently working on a way so you can have the healing property of your aura back and not have to worry about the crystal, but for now. You will only be able to heal like any other normal human." Ozpin finished, seemingly satisfied with his explanation.

Jaune took a few minutes to process what Ozpin had said. He had several questions to ask, but none could escape his mouth at the moment. He couldn't heal anymore? How is he supposed to help people if he can't help himself.

"I know being a hunter will be a challenge if you can't heal your wounds, but in due time, I'll be able to fix you. That crystal could also benefit you in the future." Ozpin said. Jaune scowled at the mentioning of the lacrima.

"Can't you just, I don't know, negate it or something? Stop it from functioning?" Jaune asked hopefully. Ozpin raised an eyebrow at this.

"No, the crystal is its own power source, so it cannot be negated, only contained. But I'm curious as to why you wouldn't want to utilize that power. It could make you immensely powerful," Ozpin said. While Jaune knew that if he was able to use the crystal, he would be a force to be reckoned with, he saw using the crystal was accepting help from an enemy, who had corrupted something precious of Jaune's.

"That may be true sir, but I don't want to accept help from Roman. He took something from my father, and created this thing that is now fused into me. I have my pride as a Dragon Slayer," Jaune said, with his head raised a little higher.

Ozpin grew curious, "A Dragon Slayer? Is that a self-proclaimed title or an earned one?" Ozpin asked. Ozpin would believe anything at this point in his life after all that he's been through, so why not believe in dragons?

Jaune sheepishly grinned and scratched the back on his head, "A little of both I guess. This'll require some explaining..."

"I have more time than you'd think," Ozpin stated as he leaned back, preparing for Jaune's 'explanation.

Ozpin knew this boy would be an interesting one to teach.


	12. Chapter 12

Now we're back to the actual story, yay. I honestly have much more fun making new chapters for this story than any other one I have.

The walk back to Beacon gave Jaune time to think. He was still trying to figure out who the woman was and how she tied in with Roman. Also how was it that he lost so much of his aura? An Ursa Major shouldn't have been that tough of an opponent. Was the seal getting weaker? Maybe more of his aura was being used to keep the seal in place. If that's the case, then what would happen in the future? Would he just get weaker?

"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, somewhat breaking him from his thoughts.

"Hm?" He responded quietly, not entirely focused.

"Are you alright? You've seemed very distracted ever since we left the forest," Pyrrha said with concern. This seemed to finally get Jaune's full attention.

"Me? Oh yeah I'm fine, never better!" Jaune said giving a small smile and a thumbs up, hoping that it would be enough to convince her.

The Champion frowned, "You're not very good at lying Jaune."

Jaune chuckled and scratched the back of his head, "Yeah I know, but this is more of a personal issue. I know you're my partner, but I can't really talk about it yet."

Pyrrha seemed to lighten up slightly since he admitted that something was bothering him, but it also worried her that he didn't want to talk about it.

Finally the large group re-entered Beacon, then split apart seeing as how that was their final class of the day. Team CDRL was to brief Ozpin on the encounter of the Ursa Major and how that predicament happened. Other than them the other students were allowed to do as they pleased. Jaune however, had to speak with Ozpin, but seeing as how he was preoccupied at the moment, he was VERY bored.

Jaune grumbled incoherent complaints as he poked his food with his fork, seemingly uninterested in the large plate of meat in front of him. The others took notice of his rather gloomy mood and decided to try to help him by finding the problem.

"Something wrong Jaune?" Ruby asked. Jaune looked to the girl with an expressionless look.

"I'm bored," he whined. A few at the table sighed at his childish antics, while Ruby pressed on.

"Well why are you bored then?" She asked. Jaune gave her a weird look. 'Isn't the cause of being bored usually because you've got nothing to do?' Jaune thought.

Jaune grumbled again, so this time surprisingly Blake chimed in, without looking up from the book she was reading. "Well then what are your hobbies Jaune?" she asked with slight curiosity.

Jaune held his chin thoughtfully for a few moments, Yang, Ruby, and Pyrrha leaned with anticipation for his answer. They individually thought if they could find out what Jaune liked to do, they could arrange to do whatever it was with Jaune, and only Jaune.

"Fighting and…" Jaune paused for another moment, the three girls expecting another answer. "That's pretty much it." Jaune said with a chuckle as he scratched the back of his neck, which was starting to become a habit.

Ruby and Pyrrha fell backwards in surprise, while Yang seemed to brighten up at this.

"How about we spar then Jaune?" Yang said with amusement. Jaune sat up straight with a slightly shocked expression.

"You want to spar with me?" Jaune said. He was thrown off by this since earlier in the week, he would ask random students to spar with him. The only response he would get was a stuttered excuse from most females, and a fearful look and a more understandable excuse from the males. Jaune was starting to think that the people here didn't like him.

"Hell Yeah! I know for a fact that you're a powerhouse, and I didn't get to fight a Grimm today. All I got to do was milk some trees." Yang stated.

"May I interject?" Pyrrha asked, recovered from her surprise at Jaune's simple answer. Everyone's attention was turned towards her. "Jaune's aura was pretty low when he fought that Ursa Major, I don't think he should be fighting today." Pyrrha finished worriedly. Jaune smiled at his partner.

"I appreciate you worrying about me, but I feel much better now. And after I eat this meal, I'll be ready to go!" Jaune exclaimed happily.

"So then lady-killer, you want to spar after dinner?" Yang said, anxious to spar with Jaune.

Jaune ignored the fact that he was called a 'Lady-killer' again, even though it bugged him. Like, seriously, he's never harmed a women with the intention to kill. Unless Grimm had genders. But regardless he smiled widely with glee as he began to practically inhale his food. "You bet! I can't wait!"

In only ten minutes, both teams entered one of the training rooms. Yang and Jaune took the stage while the rest of the members of both teams sat in the bleachers. Ruby started getting worried for Jaune. Jaune may be tough, but Yang was a real bruiser. Pyrrha was thinking something similar. Pyrrha understands Yang fighting style enough to know that if she got under your guard. You'd experience quite a bit of pain.

Blake had her eyes over her book, watching as Yang and Jaune were stretching and inspecting their weapons. She was Yang's partner, so she had seen her fight a few times. Jaune, however, was still a mystery to her. He seemed a bit too childish to know how to fight, but looks could be deceiving. She knew firsthand since she was a faunus.

Weiss was rather indifferent to the fight. She only tagged along since the rest of her team went and insisted that it would be fun. She didn't see the great fascination of watching two people fight.

Nora was extremely excited to watch the match. She didn't get many chances to see Jaune's 'Dragony power' during the combat classes, and the Emerald experience was super fun for her, but she didn't get to see him fight the pack of Beowolves that followed behind them due to the fact that she was helping with the fight with the Deathstalker. She wanted to see what her leader could do firsthand.

Ren was interested on where this fight would go. He had heard that Jaune's fighting style was nothing short of unique. While he didn't use any form of gun, he had the ability to use ranged attacks with his semblance. Yang was skilled in close and medium ranged combat. Ren knew that this would be entertaining to say the least.

On the actual arena floor, both combatants were getting excited. Yang had actually wanted to spar with Jaune since the initiation. She knew about his abilities to an extent, but she wanted to fight him to understand him at least a little bit more.

Needless to say, Jaune just wanted to spar with a tough opponent. Yang's weapons seemed to be for fist fighting only. Jaune could do that with ease.

Both of their faces appeared on the overhead projection board with green aura bars. Yang's was completely full while Jaune's was slightly less than full, but he showed no look of surprise or concern. Instead he had a cocky smirk plastered on his face.

"Looks like you got a handicap Yang," Jaune said as he pointed at the screen. Yang smirked in return.

"Oh, lucky me. I think I'll need that," Yang said in a mocking tone.

The countdown started from three, cueing the two students to take their stances.

3…2…1… BEGIN!

Yang quickly leapt into action as she blasted her gauntlets behind her, giving her a boost towards Jaune. Jaune raised his shield as Yang began to try to break his defense with a barrage of punches. Jaune let out a few strained grunts, but held his shield. Yang began to see that her tactic wasn't working, so she switched to a ranged approach.

She quickly distanced herself from Jaune, who just kept his shield up, eyeing Yang. Yang began to fire several rounds at Yang while running in a circle around Jaune, who followed her movements with his shield held high.

In the bleachers, Ruby and Pyrrha were shocked in the fact that Jaune hasn't tried to attack yet.

"Why isn't he attacking? He can't hold out forever!" Ruby asked anxiously, clenching her fists together.

Blake and Ren could see the look in Jaune's eyes though. The look of anticipation and amusement.

As empty shells fell to the ground as Yang continued to fire shotgun rounds at Jaune, who held his guard. Yang stopped in her tracks when she heard a familiar clicking sound from her gauntlets. The moment she moved to reload her gauntlets, Jaune closed the distance between them.

"I won't let you!" Jaune said as he swung his sword downwards. Yang jumped back to avoid, but Jaune kept up his attack of rapid swings and stabs. Yang knew she needed only a few seconds to reload, but Jaune wasn't giving her that luxury. As she ducked under a vertical swing of his sword, she grabbed Jaune's sword arm and pulled him into the air and began to spin. Before she could throw him, he twisted his waist and sent a kick towards her head. She leaned back to avoid the kick, but at the cost of her grip on his leg. Upon her release of Jaune, Jaune twisted his body so he was back on his feet and quickly leapt back towards Yang. Yang rolled out of the way of his overhead swing and got back to her feet before Jaune could recover. She ran into him and tackled him to the ground and pinned his arms.

"Now what will you di Lady-killer?" Yang said as she held her knees to Jaune's arms. Yang took the moment to load her weapons. Jaune just waited while she reloaded with an amused grin. A certain few of the onlookers were blushing and glaring at Yang, who was straddling Jaune's chest. Once Yang finished reloading, she drew one fist back, ready to pound Jaune until he was in the red zone.

"You're done reloading I see," Jaune stated. Yang just nodded as she waited for him to say something else. "Good, cuz it's time for round two! White Dragon's Roar!" Jaune yelled as Yang's eyes widened as she saw Jaune open his mouth and a bright light appeared in the back of his throat. Yang jumped away from Jaune as his laser fired into the air. Jaune quickly got up and continued to fire the laser and she ran around to avoid it. Jaune finally ended his attack to take another deep inhale and laugh at Yang's surprised expression.

"What's so funny?" Yang said as she blushed in slight embarrassment. Jaune whipped away a tear from his eye as he laughed until he was holding his stomach.

"I'm sorry, it's just that expression never gets old. No matter how many times I use my powers," Jaune said in between laughs. Then he quickly shook his head to get him to focus again. Yang took advantage of his slight pause and moved into his downed guard. Jaune looked up to see Yang with her fists drawn back.

"Uh oh," Jaune said before he was hit with several shots. Yang punched Jaune's sword hand, forcing him to drop his sword. Jaune finally raised his shield, but Yang gripped his other arm and quickly undid the straps and tossed the shield to the side. Yang was about to show off a victorious smirk, but she heard Jaune chuckle.

"I'm better at fighting hand to hand anyways," Jaune said as his fists began to glow bright white and form into spheres. Yang responded with raising her fists, smiling.

"The White Dragons fist will dowse the mightiest of flames," Jaune whispered as he sprinted towards Yang. Yang mimicked his action. Once they met in the middle they both swung their right fists, which both made contact with each other's faces. Immediately there was an extreme exchange of fists until Jaune decided to turn the tide in his favor.

"White Dragon's Claw!" Jaune yelled as he went for Yang's stomach, but Yang redirected his fist so his attack didn't make contact with her. Jaune jumped into the air and inhaled deeply.

"White Dragon's Holy Breath!" Jaune yelled, firing a more expansive ranged attack from his mouth, landing directly on Yang. Jaune landed on the ground, breathing heavily as he checked his aura levels. It was just below half, while Yang's was slowly increasing, which confused Jaune. His look was lifted once the smoke cleared, revealing Yang, who's hair was on fire and her lilac eyes turned crimson red. She was growling as she held something in her hand. To Jaune's confusion and Ruby's horror, it was a strand of hair. Somehow Jaune's last attack managed to separate a single strand of hair off of her head.

"You…" Yang said in a low growl, sending a shiver down Jaune's spine. "You will pay!" Yang yelled as she unloaded several shots at a surprised Jaune. Jaune held his arms up to guard against her attack, which was slowly failing. Jaune saw his aura levels dropping heavily. He glanced around and saw his shield. He should have at least one white dust capsule filled up from blocking Yang's attack from earlier. Jaune sent a kick into Yang's stomach, knocking her back. Jaune took the moment to run to his shield and open the compartment containing his capsules. He saw Yang quickly running towards him with the intent to beat the living hell out of him. Jaune quickly ingested one of the dust capsules. Yang pulled her left hand back to start another barrage, but as she swung her fist at Jaune, he caught it, taking the full force of the blast that followed, but didn't back down.

"I like this power of yours, but you need to calm down." Jaune said as he twisted around her until both of his arms wrapped around her elbows in a restraining manner. Yang thrashed around a bit, but then inhaled a few times, the fire in her hair dying down and her eyes returning to their normal shade. Yang's aura meter drastically reduced until it reached the red zone. Jaune gently placed Yang on the ground and allowed her to rest for a bit.

'Her semblance must take a lot out of her, but it's pretty impressive. If I didn't replenish my power, I might've been in trouble,' Jaune thought with a smile.

Both teams rushed towards the two. Before anyone could ask questions, Ruby chimed in.

"Yang's semblance activates when she takes enough damage. The more dealt the more she'll deal right back, but her wrath come from Jaune damaging her hair. She takes it quite seriously." Ruby said with a nervous chuckle.

"Remind me never to ever ruin her hair. I don't feel like dying yet." Jaune said nervously as he stared down at the tired Yang, who pouted.

"I'm still here, ya know." Yang said weakly. Jaune lifted her up bridal style, which led to Yang letting out a surprised yelp and hidden glares from two red-heads.

"Well you're tired, so in return for giving me a good fight, I'm going to carry you back to your room. You're on your own from there." Jaune said, an amused grin on his face. Not noticing how intimate the situation really was.

As the teams walked down the halls, Yang began to feel less tired, but she didn't let it show. She was enjoying herself at the moment.

"Could you at least help me get changed into sleeping clothes?" Yang said teasingly. Jaune didn't notice the flirting behind her words.

"I know you're not that tired, maybe some other time." Jaune said jokingly, but it caused Yang to blush and look away from him.

After Jaune dropped off Yang at her dorm room, he bid the rest of team RWBY a good night. As his team was about to enter their room, they saw Jaune walking back down the hall.

"Where are you going?" Pyrrha asked.

"I just need to take care of something quick." Jaune said without turning around and a lazy wave behind him.

'I should be able to talk to Ozpin now," Jaune thought.


	13. Chapter 13

Jaune had never actually been in Ozpin's office at Beacon before, so the layout took him by surprise. The one main thing that stood out was the fact that it was located in a Clock Tower. Jaune could hear the individual gears turning in perfect synchronization. If Jaune had this as his workplace, he might've gone insane by now.

'Although I do think Ozpin is a bit crazy, he just hides it well,' Jaune mused.

Ozpin did a revolution with his chair dramatically, and then sipped his coffee that never seemed to be empty. He eyed Jaune curiously, but then showed a hint of a smile.

"May I help you Mr. Arc?" He questioned calmly.

Jaune paused for a moment, "Actually sir, I was wondering how my… treatment is going."

This got Ozpin's full attention, "This is a surprise. You never really expressed much care about that. Why are you curious now?"

Jaune looked to the floor. He didn't want to admit that he was wrong about the larcima. As much as he didn't want to use its power, he couldn't shake the feeling of uneasiness. Jaune also wasn't a fool. He knew he'd need as much power as he could get his hands on to defeat Acnologia. And that woman he met in Forever Fall didn't help his uneasiness in the slightest.

Jaune looked up to see Ozpin's focused gaze, "I know you know this, but you did talk about the incident in Forever Fall with team CRDL correct?"

Ozpin nodded, his eyes not leaving Jaune's own.

"Well there is a little more to it than just a hungry Grimm. Before that incident took place, I found a woman in the woods, probably around my age actually. She said a few things that angered me and I lost control of my power. When I fought the Ursa Major, I was practically running on fumes. I've been mad before, but she mentioned my past with Roman, and I got a familiar feeling from her, but I couldn't place it on anything." Jaune paused again, considering his next words, "I believe the seal is weakening, and I'm afraid of what will happen if the lacrima is allowed to unleash its full power into my body without some kind of inner valve or something to regulate its power. It would also be nice to heal again too." Jaune added with a chuckle.

Ozpin stayed silent for a few moments, repeating what Jaune had told him in his mind, but then he smiled.

"Well i have to say I'm proud that you want to use the lacrima now. For a man to give up his morals for his ambitions is a rare feat. Some may look down upon it, but they aren't you." Ozpin said, raising from his chair and slowly approaching Jaune. "I'm also glad you came to my office when you did, because I have completed a new seal that should help you control and access the lacrima's power. However there is a slight catch."

Jaune inwardly panicked, but nodded.

"Your power is closely tied to your emotions. I know you've noticed this, especially after Forever Fall. This seal closes off the powers of the lacrima until your mind accepts that you are in a dire situation. So when you experiencing a time of extreme pain or sadness, you may then use the lacrima's power." Ozpin finished, now face-to-face with Jaune.

Jaune seemed to actually accept this idea as he nodded and smiled.

'At least I won't be able to use it unless I have to then,' Jaune thought.

"When can we start, sir?" Jaune asked, straightening his back.

"Right now, follow me," Ozpin said, motioning with his cane towards the exit of his office.

As the duo walked through the halls, the few students that hadn't returned to their dorms yet eyed the two curiously. Jaune nervously laughed while Ozpin seemed to not notice, or just not care. Most likely the latter. Jaune tried to focus on the different designs of the hallways and rooms that they passed. Jaune actually managed to zone out, but was abruptly brought back into reality by Ozpin stopping in his place and tapping Jaune's shoulder with his cane.

"We have arrived," Ozpin said with his casual demeanor in place.

Jaune poked his head inside after Ozpin entered. The first thing Jaune noticed was that the combat/dust teacher, Glynda Goodwitch, seemed to be waiting for them. Jaune saw her stare at him from her peripheral vision. For just a moment, he saw her eyes show a sign of pity towards him, but when she turned towards him completely, she wore her normal, stoic look.

"Please lie down Jaune, and please remove your sweatshirt and undershirt." Ozpin said, setting his coffee aside. Jaune complied, although a bit uneasily since his scars would be visible, and got comfortable, that is, until he felt metal restraints wrap themselves around his wrists, feet, and abdomen.

"What the hell is this?!" Jaune yelled. This felt uncomfortably familiar.

"Please calm down Jaune, this is unfortunately necessary for this procedure." Glynda said with unusual kindness.

"Explain," Jaune said with a growl.

"Jaune, do you remember the pain you felt when the White Fang inserted the lacrima into your body?" Ozpin said. Jaune slowly nodded.

"Well in order for this to work, we need to fully remove the original seal, which will bring back the pain. Then we will need to synchronize the new seal with your emotions, which will, in theory, double your pain. I know this won't be pleasant for you Jaune, but this is the only way," Ozpin said with genuine care.

Jaune instantly calmed down, but now he felt something he hadn't felt in a long time, fear. That pain was already unbearable, but now he would feel it again, except doubled? Wouldn't that much pain kill a normal man?

'But you're not a normal man, you're a Dragon Slayer.' A voice whispered.

Jaune inhaled deeply, and then sighed.

"Let's get this over with then, my team is probably worried about me by now." Jaune said while smiling.

Both Glynda and Ozpin nodded, and then Ozpin leaned forward and placed his hands on Jaune's chest. His hands began to glow a dark gray, showing his aura was already at work removing the seal. Jaune could feel a slowly increasing pain that made him think something was about to burst out of his chest.

Ozpin exhaled slowly, and then there was a flash of Ozpin's aura followed by Jaune's scream of agony as the seal was broken. Jaune's body began to glow, proving that the lacrima was still making its own aura supply.

"Glynda, now!" Ozpin yelled, Glynda quickly rushed over and placed her right hand on Jaune's forehead and her left on top of Ozpins. Her pruple aura glowed brightly as she chanted incoherent words, but her voice was overpowered by Jaune's screaming.

'I WILL BECOME STRONGER!' Jaune mentally yelled as his aura glowed brighter. Ozpin and Glynda stared wide eyed as white markings appeared on Jaune's face and arms.

'They almost look like dragon scales,' Ozpin thought.

As quickly as they came, the markings receded and Jaune's screams quieted down until only heavy breathing was hear coming from the only three occupants of the room.

"Congratulations Mr. Arc, you have now re-unlocked the ability to heal and use a more powerful aura," Ozpin said in between heavy breaths.

Jaune laughed weakly as the restrains left his body, allowing him to slowly walk and stumble to his clothes. As he looked down at his chest, he saw that the scars were now smaller, thanks to his healing, but sighed as he realized that they weren't going to ever leave him.

"Thank you very much Ozpin and Glynda. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go to bed." Jaune said, exiting the room with a lazy wave of his hand.

Glynda looked at Ozpin, "I can't begin to imagine what he had just felt."

Ozpin nodded, but smiled, "He's a strong boy. He can take whatever is thrown at him."

Meanwhile, as Jaune made his way back to his dorm room.

"You really need to control your anger, Yang." A short red head said as she eyed her sister.

"I said I was sorry," Yang said tiredly. She had been dealing with everyone complaining at her for nearly killing Jaune, even though he appeared to overpower her even in her 'rage-mode.'

"Jaune is lucky that he is so skilled, otherwise you would've killed him." Ruby said, still glaring at her sister.

Yang decided to finally turn the tide to her favor, "Ruby, are you just jealous because Jaune carried me back in his arms like a princess?" Yang said with a sly grin.

Ruby blushed deeply and flailed her arms, "No! N-not at all!" Ruby yelled.

Yang laughed at her younger sisters childish antics, "Oh yeah? Then why are you blushing?" Yang said as she elbowed her sister lightly.

The other two members of team RWBY were starting to become annoyed at the other two members' antics. Blake couldn't focus on her book and Weiss couldn't even try to sleep.

"Will you two be quiet?! Honestly, getting this loud over one imbecile." Weiss complained.

Yang's eyes met Weiss's, which sent a shiver down the Ice Queen's spine. Yang had a predatory glint as she thought of what to say to make the Ice Queen flustered.

"Oh come on, even you have to find the thought of him holding you enjoyable. I certainly enjoyed it." Yang said with a purr.

As Weiss went to retort, Blake sighed, clearly annoyed and closed her book.

'I'll just go to the library to read until these three finally exhaust themselves.' Blake thought dryly.

Blake quickly made her way to the library, but as she walked through a few hallways, she spotted a pair of legs as they seemed to be dragged around a corner. She could also hear a low groan coming from the pair of legs. She didn't consider bringing her weapons with her, so she was armed with only the book she intended to read against whatever this could be. She quietly made her way to the edge of the corner, just before the turn and poked her head around it. What she saw surprised her.

It was Jaune, who was dragging himself slowly across the hallway. He looked drained and weak as he groaned and cursed under his breath.

Blake quickly made her way to Jaune's side, full of concern.

"Jaune! Are you alright?" Blake said as she placed her free hand on Jaune's back. Jaune weakly looked up at the voice and found Blake.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just kinda tired. My legs decided that they didn't want to work anymore, unreliable bastards," Jaune said with a laugh. Blake quickly slung Jaune's arm around her shoulders and lifted him with a strained grunt. Jaune was heavier than she thought.

"What did you even do to make yourself this exhausted?" Blake said with slight worry. She had never seen someone so tired from anything before.

"Training," Jaune said simply, not giving her any further explanation. She wanted to question him further, but she knew how unusual he was. He probably thought of some outrageous training that left him in his current state.

Jaune turned his head to her with renewed interest, "So what's it like to be a faunus?" Blake stopped walking and snapped her head to look at him.

"W-what do you mean? I'm not a faunus." Blake said, Jaune wasn't even close to convinced.

"Yeah, you kinda are. I don't know if you know this, but your bow twitches from time to time. I don't think a bow is normally supposed to do that." Jaune said with a smile. Blake glared at him, causing him to let out a weak squeak of fright.

"Don't tell anyone about that," Blake said with a growl. Jaune shrank back and 'zipped up' his lips with his free hand. Blake sighed, feeling bad about lashing out at Jaune.

"I'm sorry, I just can't tell anyone about that. I know you've noticed that faunus aren't treated equally. You saw firsthand." Blake said, referring to when Jaune helped Velvet. Jaune nodded in understanding, but he felt Blake had another reason for hiding her animal appendages, something darker than what she let on.

Blake finally continued walking Jaune back to his dorm, Jaune gave Blake a caring look.

"I doubt that you're hiding yourself because you're afraid of being treated like crap, but we all have secrets. I know all too well. You can tell me or anyone else whenever you feel like it." Jaune said with a smile. Blake stumbled a bit, thrown off guard by Jaune's genuine care. She couldn't bring herself to respond, so she focused on bringing Jaune to his dorm.

They finally made it to the dorm room of JNPR. Jaune felt relieved to finally be back so he could rest.

"Thank you very much Blake, I definitely owe you one." Jaune said.

"Just promise that you won't tell anyone about… me." Blake said, not quite sure what to say to him.

"Hey, I don't know what you're talking about. So as far as I'm concerned, I do owe you a favor. Just call it in whenever." Jaune said with a smile. Blake couldn't help but blush as Jaune slowly stumbled into his room with some difficulty.

Back in Ozpin's office, Glynda and Ozpin were recuperating from exhausting their own aura. Ozpin couldn't help but think about the markings that appeared on Jaune when they were re-sealing the lacrima. Ozpin could feel the raw power emanating from Jaune. It was incredible.

'This will require further observation.' Ozpin thought as he sipped his coffee.


	14. The White Drive

Jaune somehow didn't wake his team as he stumbled into the room. He sighed in relief as he changed into his new night clothes, which were a blue onesie. He knew they looked kind of silly, but they were comfortable and covered his body except for his neck. He was still self-conscious about his chest scars.

The next morning, Jaune felt strangely sore. He had never felt so exhausted, but that must have just been the after effects of the seal. His aura must still be adapting to the lacrima's power. He hoped he would be better soon. It wouldn't do well for him if he was caught slacking off due to his low power.

So with a stretch, followed by popping sounds from his bones, Jaune dressed himself as his teammates started to rise from their slumbers. Nora whispered something about pancakes to herself before she awoke. She looked sad when she fully awoke, she must've been having a nice dream apparently.

The morning itself was rather uneventful. First was breakfast, where Jaune ate a weeks-worth of food, surprising everyone. Then there were the classes, which Jaune found no interest in except for Port's class. Jaune was enthralled by his stories, although he couldn't understand why so many people were asleep around him. Port had awesome stories!

Finally was something Jaune surprisingly dreaded, combat class. He knew his body wasn't in its prime condition, far from it actually. He periodically checked his aura levels during the day. They stayed just above half, slowly increasing from time to time. He smiled regardless of his situation. Hopefully he'd have an easier fight this time.

"Alright students, listen up!" Glynda said, easily gaining everyone's attention. "Today our class will proceed as it normally would, unless you chose this option as displayed here." Glynda said, pointing her crop at the projection board. The students carefully read the bold letters. There were mixed reactions, varying from excitement to slight fear or anxiety. Jaune wasn't quite sure what to think, that is, until he read the very last line. 'If you chose this option, your fight will be observed by the Headmaster himself.'

'A fight with second year students, and observed by Ozpin?' Jaune thought. Jaune saw a few people raise their hands in acceptance of this second option, along with all of team RWBY and the rest of his team. His team and their fellow sister team looked at him expectantly, but Jaune wasn't fazed by their looks. He was about to decline, until he saw the terrifying glare of Glynda aimed right for him. Jaune slowly raised his hand and smiled awkwardly.

"Good, now any of you choosing this second option, please head down that corridor, I will stay here and observe the regular combat practices here." Glynda said as a set of doors opened to the right of the room, linking to another arena.

The brave students that chose the second option found themselves being stared at by every second year student. The looks were unnerving for most of the students, except Jaune, who was rather oblivious to their current tactic, mental warfare. The second year students were testing the first years, to see if they'd crack under the pressure. To their surprise, nobody did, yet.

Jaune ignored them and stared right back in observation. He spotted a rather odd looking team, but within that team he saw a familiar pair of bunny ears.

"Hey, what's up Velvet! I didn't know you were a second year!" Jaune said with a wave. All of the attention was now either drawn directly at Jaune, or at Velvet, who let out a small 'eep!' and backed up to hide herself. The rest of what Jaune assumed was Velvet's team seemed to share a few words with Velvet herself. Jaune could've sworn he heard his name in there somewhere.

"Now if everyone is ready, please take your seats until I chose the match-ups," a voice said. Everyone recognized it as Ozpins. Ozpin was seated in a small observation deck above the arena, sipping his coffee and typing names into a computer.

Jaune watched as different fights unfolded. Ruby lost to a large lion faunus who wielded a large hammer. Although she was much faster than the faunus, the faunus had incredible endurance. He simply held his ground until Ruby exhausted her aura. She was embarrassed, but it quickly passed as she watched the following fights.

Pyrrha won her fight against an arrogant student who wielded two shields. She used her semblance to rip his shields off, rendering him defenseless.

Yang had a draw against another female student, who relied on reflexes over anything. They simply ran out of aura at the same time. Truthfully it wasn't a very interesting fight.

Weiss lost to a woman who wielded several different kinds of knives, each with different dust types applied to them. The woman always seemed one step ahead of Weiss.

Nora lost to a man who used illusions to win. This didn't bring Nora's mood down at all.

Ren barely won against a man with heavy armor and a long lance. It took all Ren had to not pass out after the fight itself, but he was still happy with the outcome.

Blake refused to fight, simply because she was in a very interesting part of her book and wanted to observe her team in the meantime.

Now Jaune's match was here, but Jaune didn't see anyone in the arena with him. He looked up at the projector and saw that his name was all alone. Until finally he saw three names appear in a group on the other side of the v.s. letters.

'Fox, Coco, and Yatsuhashi? Why am I fighting three people?' Jaune thought as his opponents walked to the opposite side of the arena. He gave them all curious looks before he looked back at Ozpin, who was smiling.

"We are the members of team CFVY, and we would like to first thank you for helping our teammate, Velvet. She told us about you and how you're quite powerful. Although it is sort of unconventional, we would like to see the power that took out four students with apparent ease." Coco explained. Jaune felt slightly nervous.

"Um… alright I guess. Just don't expect me to bring out my A game. I've been kind of sore all day. My aura levels haven't really recovered yet," Jaune said as he pointed to his name, which had the aura bar under it. The bar the three quarters full.

"That's fine, we weren't going to go all out anyways. You are a first year after all, you can only do so much." Coco taunted, some of the students eyed her questioningly. She didn't usually do that.

This struck a nerve in Jaune. Even if they were in different years, he shouldn't be looked down upon, nobody should. "So you think because there is a gap between our years that you think you can beat me? While that may be true since it is currently three on one, I think you would have a difficult match against me." Jaune said cockily. He knew that he should be on equal standings with them, but if they weren't going to treat him like he was worth their effort, then they wouldn't receive his respect.

Coco pulled down her shades to see Jaune more clearly, eyeing him up and down. "Nothing Fox can't handle, go get 'em." Coco said as the one named Fox did a full on sprint towards Jaune. Jaune readied himself, observing his new opponent. He would stay on the defensive until he got a good read on Fox.

Fox jumped forward and thrust his legs towards Jaune. Jaune had Fox's feet land on his shield, and then shoved him off. Fox recovered with a roll and began to slash and jab at Jaune. After realizing that Fox was quick with his attacks that all seemed melee based, Jaune leapt backwards to distance himself from Fox. As Fox ran towards Jaune again, Jaune built up his power, "White Dragon's Roar!" Jaune yelled as his attack quickly made its way to Fox, whos eyes widened before he leaned backwards to avoid the laser. Jaune seemed to smile during his roar, which he continued to fire as he aimed to downwards at Fox. Fox had to land on his back and roll out of the way of the laser to avoid getting hit. Fox got to his feet, only to be shield bashed in the chest by Jaune, who smirked.

"Will you fight seriously? This is getting boring." Jaune said as he leaned on his sword, looking uninterested. Fox grumbled something and ran towards Jaune, who lowered his stance and readied his sword. As Fox began to pound on Jaune's shield, Jaune swung his sword overhead in a large arc. Fox saw the attack and punched Jaune's hand to the side. Jaune used the momentum to continue the spin to wind up another sword swing. Jaune swung horizontally, forcing Fox to block with the blades of his gauntlets. Fox was knocked back a few inches. Jaune smiled, 'this fight is getting interesting,' Jaune thought as he charged at Fox. Jaune thrust his sword forward. Jaune didn't miss the smile Fox had before Fox twisted Jaune's hand, forcing Jaune to release his sword. Jaune quickly swung low with his left leg, tripping Fox. Jaune continued his kick, winding up another attack.

"White Dragon's Claw!" Jaune yelled as he slammed his hand into Fox's chest before his back could even touch the ground. Fox hit the ground with a loud crash, forming a small crater. Fox attempted to move, but found that he couldn't.

"What is this?" Fox asked calmly. Jaune gave him a strange look. Usually when people asked him that, they were pissed. Fox didn't seem mad at all. Actually he was more or less impressed with this outcome.

"One of my abilities. It renders you immobile, I won't say how long." Jaune said with a smile. He knew the time it took for his attack to wear off depended on the user. Hopefully this Fox fellow would stay put for a while.

Jaune let out a few breaths. He was more winded than he thought, but his smile didn't falter. They wanted a fight, he was going to give them one.

"So who's next? Come at me!" Jaune said as he slid his foot under his sword and kicked it back into the air so he could catch it. After catching it with succession, he looked up and saw that Yatsuhashi had stepped forward, sword drawn.

'Damn that's one big dude, and one big sword.' Jaune thought as he waited for his opponent to charge like Fox did, but all Yatsuhashi did was raise his eyebrow at Jaune, as if he were expecting something from him.

'I should reserve some aura, I'm already tired and I have a feeling this won't be an easy fight.' Jaune thought, although he was hesitant to charge straight at the hulking samurai. Jaune sighed and readied himself.

"Okay, if you won't move, I'll make the first move." Jaune said as he ran at Yatsuhashi, shield in front as he was within fifteen feet, Yatsuhashi swung straight down. 'His timing is way off,' Jaune thought, assuming Yatsuhashi was attempting to hit Jaune before Jaune could reach him. Unfortunately that was not the case. Yatsuhashi's blade hovered just centimeters above the ground, but Jaune felt a large shockwave hit him backwards. Jaune tumbled a few times until he stabbed his sword into the ground, halting his uncoordinated movements.

Jaune growled as he charged again, only to have the same thing happen again. As Jaune recovered once again, he saw Yatsuhashi just observing Jaune, he never took his eyes off Jaune, nor did he mock him in any way. Jaune could tell Yatsuhashi was an honorable man.

"White Dragon's Roar!" Jaune yelled as the laser left his mouth. Yatsuhashi didn't make any attempt to move until it was nearly five feet from him. He slammed into the laser with his shoulder armor. Although the laser pushed Yatsuhashi back, he seemed uninjured. He rolled his shoulder twice before readying himself again. Jaune felt out of breath, but he was feeling excited. This opponent was tough.

'Looks like I'll need my dust for this,' Jaune thought as he went for the compartment in his shield, but a voice over the arena speaker.

"Oh Mr. Arc, I forgot to mention that you aren't allowed to use your dust for this fight." Ozpin said, smiling as Jaune seemed to get mad.

"What do you mean?! I'm fighting three people, you can at least let me eat my damn dust!" Jaune yelled at the observation tower. Ozpin simply sipped his coffee.

"This fight is different. You need to learn how to rely on your own power and not your dust, unless you truly need it." Ozpin said, receiving questioning looks from the students watching as well as Coco's team.

"Ugh, fine. That's fine, I'll win either way," Jaune said with a cocky grin, but he wasn't 100% sure about his own words. 'I can't hit him with any close range attacks, and he can repel my roar. I doubt my Holy Breath would work, but maybe the Holy Ray…' Jaune sighed mentally. He knew that using the Holy Ray took a large portion of his aura, but he didn't see any quick way out of this current fight.

"Prepare yourself," Jaune said as he brought his hands close together. A bright light appeared in his hands as he focused on building up his aura. Everyone could feel the pressure building in the room, even Coco looked a little surprised.

"White Dragon's Holy Ray!" Jaune yelled as a large ball of aura formed as he expanded his arms. Soon several bolts of white aura launched at Yatsuhashi from all directions. Yatsuhashi swung downwards, sending another shockwave to repel the incoming holy projectiles. While his attack did stop a few, the shockwave didn't last forever. More than half of the holy bolts made it through his invisible defense. He knew he didn't have enough time to launch another shockwave, so he balled himself up in an attempt to shield himself with some of his armor. He felt the bolts hit his body in various places, causing more of an impact than he anticipated. His aura dropped into the yellow as the bolts finally stopped firing. As he went to stand back up, Jaune quickly ran over to him and smacked the top of Yatsuhashi's head with his shield, stunning him. Jaune pushed him on the ground with his foot and held his sword to Yatsuhashi's throat.

"Yield," Jaune said between heavy breaths. The last attack had exhausted him. As Yatsuhashi was about to comply, he remembered that he wasn't alone in his fight. A familiar sound of a weapon mecha-shifting caused both Jaune and Yatsuhashi's heads to turn. Coco smirked as her briefcase transformed into a large dark orange minigun.

"How the hell does that even make sense?!" Jaune yelled as he put his shield in front of him to block the hail of incoming bullets. Jaune looked back over his shield to see if Coco was done, but felt hands grab his foot. He looked down to see Yatsuhashi grabbing his foot. Yatsuashi pushed Jaune off him, causing Jaune to stumble. Out of Jaune's peripheral vision, he could see Fox starting to recover.

'oh, that's just wonderful.' Jaune thought as he let out a few ragged breaths. He was too close to dipping into the red zone with his aura. One more attack and he was done. It didn't matter if it came from him or them, he couldn't win.

"Oh well, there goes my perfect win/loss record," Jaune said as he charged straight at Coco. 'I'll be damned if I don't hit her at least once!' Jaune thought as he was filled with renewed energy.

Jaune was unsure of what to do. He had never felt this before, but he somehow knew what to say, just like with the rest of his abilities. "White Drive," he whispered. Suddenly, he felt a massive boost in his power and saw a bright flash of his own aura, but that didn't stop his charge. Now with new determination, he tossed his sword at an incoming Fox, who dodged, but didn't recover fast enough to dodge Jaune's shield, which he also threw directly at his face. Being free of his weapons, he activated his 'White Dragon's Fist' as he continued his charge on Coco. Yatsuhashi's eyes widened at Jaune's sudden burst of aura, but he placed himself between Coco and Jaune, sword at the ready.

"Outta the way!" Jaune yelled as he brought his fist back to punch Yatsuhashi. Yatsuhashi swung his sword down, but was too slow as Jaune pumped aura into his legs.

"White Dragon's Holy Nova!" Jaune yelled as the power in his fist increased immensely. It connected to Yatsuhashi's chest and sent him flying back. Jaune didn't slow down his assault at all. Coco scowled and fired several hundred rounds a second at Jaune. None of the bullets seemed to even hit Jaune though. He bobbed and weaved through the wall of bullets as he slowly advanced towards Coco. As Jaune finally got close enough to hit her, he rolled and grabbed the barrel of the minigun with his right hand, pushing the barrel so it was aimed at the ceiling. Coco couldn't lower her gun since Jaune seemed to be stronger than her, so she released the hold on her gun and ran at Jaune in an attempt to kick him.

"Not so fast there!" Jaune shouted as he spun around and slammed the gun into Coco, knocking her down. Coco went to get to her feet, but Jaune had pinned her arms, rendering her immobile.

"Don't make me use my roar again," Jaune said as he opened his mouth, showing Coco the aura that was building up in his throat. Coco glared at Jaune, but said the words.

"I surrender," She said.

Jaune stood up and held his hand out to Coco, before she grabbed it, Jaune's 'White Drive' wore off. Jaune quickly fell to one knee, having great difficulty in trying to catch his breath. He felt extremely exhausted and sore. Some of those bullets must've hit him after all.

Soon enough his team was on him, helping him up, all with worried faces.

"Jaune! Are you alright?" Pyrrha said worriedly. Nora looked even more worried than the Spartan-like woman while Ren showed slight concern, but inwardly he was very concerned.

"Yeah, just gimmie a sec. My lungs are currently trying to kill me," Jaune managed to choke out and crack a smile before gasping for more breath.

They quickly took Jaune to the infirmary, closely followed by team RWBY. Jaune's aura was dangerously low, so he was given a supplement that would help his aura recover faster. Jaune sighed in relief as he was finally able to relax after an intense fight.

"Where did that burst of power come from Jaune! It was like when you cut Yang's hair!" Ruby said in awe at Jaune. She had never seen someone gain even more aura without doing anything special.

"I honestly don't know," Jaune said as he chuckled at everyone's expressions. Of course he knew, it was the lacrima, but he wasn't ready to tell anyone yet. Although he would have to have a chat with Ozpin later.

"How are you feeling Jaune?"

'Speak of the devil,' Jaune thought as Ozpin walked in the room.

"Much better now, that team is freakin' tough!" Jaune said, unable to sit up yet due to the pain in his… pretty much enverywhere.

"That fight was awesome though! You were like 'imma beat you up for lookin' down on me' and you totally did!" Nora exclaimed causing both teams to laugh.

"I'm sorry to ask you all of this, but my I have a word with Jaune? I need to congratulate him on his fight. It's certainly no easy feat to beat three second-year students." Ozpin said, but Jaune knew that wasn't his true intention.

Although reluctantly, both teams filed out of the room, leaving Ozpin and Jaune alone in the room. There was an uncomfortable silence before Jaune spoke.

"Was that whole event just for you to test me?" Jaune said. Ozpin remained silent for a minute, but smiled.

"You know me too well Mr. Arc," Jaune chuckled at Ozpin, he should've figured.

"Well now that that's been established, I think I understand your powers quite a bit more, especially with the addition to the lacrima," Ozpin started. Jaune sighed.

"This is gonna take a while isn't it?" Jaune said with a slightly depressed look. Ozpin just smiled and began.

'This is gonna take forever!' Jaune mentally groaned.

Wow this chapter was long, holy crap. Anyways, I always enjoy reviews.


	15. The New Mission

"Before we begin I would like to give you my evaluation of your fight with team CVFY," Ozpin stated. Jaune frowned, but nodded. He was just so anxious to learn about what Ozpin figured out about his powers, but he knew Ozpin was going to hold off on telling him. Being a headmaster comes first after all.

"First, I am happy to say that you did exceptionally well against the second year team, even if you didn't beat all three of them. Especially since that particular team is one of the top teams in the second year. Although I would like to point out that you need to conserve your aura in your fights. I know how much you prefer to use your semblance in your fights, but you were given a sword and shield for a reason. While you did use them during the fight, you exerted yourself more than you needed to. You need to increase your skill with your weapons, otherwise you'll just be wasting energy." Ozpin finished his evaluation with a sip of his coffee.

"Yes, sir. I'll work on that. Thank you," Jaune said gratefully. Truth be told, he knew that much already, but he had been more focused on increasing his aura capacity and the strength of his Dragon Slayer attacks. Jaune had almost forgotten the importance to using simple weapons rather than relying on ones power.

"Now on to the more important matter, your powers. There was a reason for this entire fight. While I do believe that this whole plan was a good learning experience for the first years, this was mostly set up to test you." Ozpin said calmly. Jaune nodded, expecting Ozpin to hopefully get to the point soon.

"I didn't allow you to use your white dust to recover so you could be pushed to your limit, and beyond. While this method did work, it ended differently than I thought. When I released the seal on the lacrima, white markings appeared on your face. When this happened, the aura you were emitting was immense. In all my years of being a hunter I've never felt such an intense amount of raw power coming from one person. When you were in the arena, your aura did increase by quite a bit. However no markings appeared on you and the power you were emitting wasn't on the same level as before."

Jaune thought back to the fight. He did feel the amazing power that he had flowing through him. It was an incredible feeling, but also an uncomfortable one. He felt like he needed to lose the power by using his attacks.

"White Drive," Jaune said quietly. Ozpin leaned in to hear Jaune.

"What did you say?" Ozpin asked.

"I called that power boost in the arena White Drive, it seemed fitting to me," Jaune said, looking up at Ozpin with a smile.

Ozpin chuckled, "You always seemed to have a liking for flashy moves."

After a few minutes of cleaning himself up, Jaune was ready to check out. Little did he know he was about to get ambushed by several huntresses in training.

"Thanks for that Ozp- WHOA!" Jaune said as he opened the door to find five familiar female students leaning towards the door, the more energetic ones attempting to hear the conversation between the headmaster and the Dragon Slayer while the more indifferent ones stood in the back with mild interest. Nora and Ren were waiting patiently behind them. They all gasped in surprise, they barely heard Jaune walking towards the door. They instantly jumped back and started firing off questions.

"What were you talking about in there?"

"How did you gain that much aura during the fight?"

"What is that 'White Drive' thingy you were talking about?"

"Why did you-"

Jaune couldn't focus on one person since they were firing off questions left and right. His eyes were wide and his brain was having a meltdown trying to keep up with the energetic huntresses. Ozpin stood behind Jaune with a faint smile on his face.

"Now now ladies, Jaune has just recovered, but if you keep this up he may need to return to his hospital bed." Ozpin said humorously. The girls let out nervous chuckles and calmed down, waiting for Jaune to speak.

After a few long seconds, Jaune seemed to have completed his recalibration and was ready to speak, but Ozpin beat him to it.

"You all impressed me today with your individual skills. You all displayed different types on skills and strengths in your fights that you should strive to grow and improve. I'm actually so impressed that I'd like to give both teams a special mission. Normally, students aren't allowed to go on missions until their second year, but I'll make an exception with all of you, seeing as you all displayed skill that far exceeds most first year students." Ozpin said.

Everyone just stared at him. They were thankful for his words, but were they really ready? Before any of them could formulate a response, the blonde Dragon Slayer himself gave his answer for the group.

"Hell Yeah! Let's do it!"

Ozpin chuckled at Jaune's excitement, but his humor was also for what surprise he had for the blonde. "Very well, all of you have one hour to prepare yourselves and meet me by the airship docks to receive your mission."

The two teams instantly broke off to prepare themselves in their own ways. Weiss, Blake, and Ren were preparing their weapons and choosing which kinds of dust or ammo to bring. Nora was packing her back for what she claimed as 'essentials,' which were large amounts of syrup and pancakes, which she kept in a special bag. Ruby was panicking about the whole mission, but on the inside was extremely happy. Yang was releasing a bit of her anxiety about the upcoming mission by destroying combat drones in the training arena. Jaune decided that he wanted a nap, but Pyrrha decided that he should prepare in some helpful way.

"But I don't wanna!" Jaune whined childishly.

"You are our leader Jaune, and as such it is your responsibility to keep everything in order and prepare us for whatever comes our way," Pyrrha said with a smile and her hands on her hips.

"But you guys are trained fighters, you don't need my help." Jaune retorted, still in a whine.

"What about your preparations? Surely you at least need to bring something." Pyrrha stated while she went to her own bed to prepare her own things.

"Ugh, you're like my dad!" Jaune said, but then felt slight sorrow briefly at his own mentioning of his father, but hid it instantly with a smile.

"Am I now?" Pyrrha said with interest, even though it was a touchy subject for Jaune, he would bring up his father now and then.

"Yeah, he always said I should be prepared for anything, but I preferred to play everything by ear. We would go back and forth about it on several occasions," Jaune said, reminiscing about his past life. It was so easy back then. Jaune then got out of his bed and pulled out a small backpack.

"Maybe you two are right, I'll prepare a few things and see how that goes." Jaune said, smiling at Pyrrha, who in turn smiled right back.

Soon enough the hour had passed and both teams were at the airship docks. Ruby couldn't stand still for more than a minute, much to Weiss's annoyance. Nora was happily humming while Ren stood beside her, faintly smiling.

"Well, it's good to see everyone so punctual," Ozpins voice spoke behind both teams. They all turned towards him and stood straight, completely silent.

"Alright, this mission should be relatively easy. A simple Grimm extermination near a small mountain town. The most dangerous thing that was recently spotted was a rather large Deathstalker, but don't let that sway you. You should be fine." Ozpin said formally. Both teams nodded in confirmation of the information given. Ozpin smiled and started to walk away, but turned around once more and looked directly at Jaune.

"Jaune?" Ozpin asked, demanding his attention.

"Y-yes sir?" Jaune asked, slightly nervous under his mentors gaze.

"Good luck," Ozpin said, and before questions could be asked, he left.

"Oookay," Jaune said curiously.

"That was kinda weird," Yang added.

"Oh who cares? LETS BLOW UP SOME STUFF!" Nora said excitedly, pumping her fist into the air.

"Sooo, where do we go from here?" Ruby asked.

Answering her question, the large sound of a starting engine alerted everyone in the room of its location. A small, luxurious, black jet was waiting for them only a couple meters away.

"How did we miss that?" Yang asked.

Jaune stared at the decently sized aircraft in horror. Ruby was the only person who noticed this and remembered what he had told her on the first day. His dreaded motion sickness. Ruby quickly made her way over to Jaune in an attempt to comfort him.

"You okay, Jaune?" Ruby asked, concern leaking into her voice.

Jaune quickly looked at her and smiled, "Who me? Yeah I'm all good! I-I'm better than good, actually. Yup, nothing to worry about, heh heh heh." Jaune said nervously scratching the back of his head. This gained the attention of the rest of both teams members.

"What's up with Dragon Boy?" Yang asked.

"NOTHING. Don't worry about it!" Jaune said, waving his hands in front of him.

"Jaune has motion sickness." Ruby said flatly. Jaune stared at her in horror.

"Why Ruby? Why would you tell them?" Jaune asked loudly.

"What? They deserve to know your weakness," Ruby claimed.

"Jaune has motion sickness?" Weiss asked. Juane looked at her and nodded slowly, filled with shame.

"It's such a lame weakness," Jaune said pitifully. Glancing up at the jet once more. He was already feeling sick.

"It's okay Jaune, there's no need to hide something from us." Ren said in an attempt to scrap up some of Jaune's pride.

"He's right. There's nothing to be ashamed of. We all have our weaknesses." Blake added.

Jaune looked at everyone and smiled. These people were too good for him. "Thanks guys," Jaune said quietly, feeling slightly less sick.

"Okay! Now that that's settled, let's get going!" Yang said while grabbing Jaune's arm. His eyes widened as he saw where she was leading him.

"W-wait Yang! I'm not ready yet! Give me a minute!" Jaune yelled loudly, hoping she'd listen to reason.

"Nope! We've wasted enough time sitting around. We need to get moving A.S.A.P!" Yang yelled. The rest of both teams following closely behind.

'Please god, help me!' Jaune cried in his head, knowing his fate was sealed.

**This took me a WHILE to do for whatever reason. For those who have only read this story of mine, I've been working mainly on my newest story, Jaune Arc Master-of-Arms, which got pretty popular. But I missed doing this, so I'll try to work on this a bit more now that I've finally gotten this boring chapter out of the way.**


	16. Grimm Raising

The view for the passengers of the luxurious jet was quite a sight to see. The weather was partially cloudy, so both clouds and the environment below them were visible. There were several small bodies of water, perfectly reflecting the cheery blue color of the sky. The different open fields contained lush, green plants of different varieties. Truly it was a sight to behold, gaining the attention of all but one passenger of the plane. The odd passenger out was currently hunched over a trash bin, cursing his ever so cruel weakness.

"Damn motion sickness. Someday, I will overpower you." Jaune groaned as he finished his declaration of future triumph.

The other passengers could clearly see that the plane was getting lower to the ground, so they had assumed that they were near their landing destination, but the reality of the situation was that they were landing a different way.

Each student felt their scrolls go off at once. They each pulled out their respective scrolls and read the message sent by none other than Ozpin. Even Jaune was able to pull out his scroll in his current condition.

"One thing I forgot to mention. Due to this mission being held in the mountains, there is no airstrip for your jet to safely land on. As you can probably tell, your jet is lowering as we speak, but that will soon stop. Your first objective is to land safely in the woods with your very own 'landing strategy,' good luck."

"Oh you senile bastard," Jaune mumbled angrily.

"Um… we have to jump out of the plane?" Ruby asked, although she clearly knew the answer.

"Sounds like it," Blake said in a monotone voice, but clearly showed her annoyance towards the situation at hand.

A loud beep could be heard before the voice of the pilot came through the loudspeakers.

"Attention all hunters and huntresses, I have halted my decent, you have a maximum of three minutes to get out of my jet. I hope you've had a nice flight," the pilot said with slight amusement.

"I hate everything," Was Jaunes' immediate response.

"I suppose that's a reasonable amount of time. At least we have a moment to think before we somehow manage a landing at this speed," Weiss said calmly, but on the inside she was slightly worried.

"Jaune, are you alright?" Pyrrha asked, full of concern. Jaune looked weakly up at her and smiled.

"Just throw me off this damn thing. After that I'll be fine." Jaune said reassuringly, although his sickly expression kept her worried.

"Okay everyone, let's grab our supplies and… jump." Ruby said, already sliding her small backpack onto her back.

Soon everyone followed suit, although Pyrrha needed to assist Jaune with getting his own backpack. Now they were all standing by one of the emergency exits on the right side of the black jet.

"So, who wants to go first?" Yang questioned, still unsure of their current situation. With speed nobody thought possible given his condition, Jaune dragged himself over to her and tapped her shoulder.

"I'll go, but you gotta throw me. I barely have the strength to stand right now," Jaune said. True to his word, his legs were shaking violently, threatening to buckle under him.

"Okay then!" Yang exclaimed cheerfully. The other teenagers on the plane could clearly see the mischievous glint in her eyes, except Jaune himself of course. Yang positioned Jaune in front of the emergency exit.

"Here you go Jaune!" Yang yelled over the sound of the jet door opening and causing an almost deafening sound. Jaune was waiting for a pair of hands to grab his shoulders or at least something related to that, but when he heard the sound of a familiar gun gauntlet priming behind him, his eyes widened. He knew what Yang had planned.

"Yang, don't you da-!" Jaune said, but was cut off by Yang throwing a straight punch into the armor on his back, sending him flying out of the lane. His screams of initial terror were instantly replaced with cheers due to him finally being off of the plane, even though it was barely audible.

"Yang, what the heck?!" Ruby screeched, caught completely off guard by her sisters' reckless action, hands into the air in order to express her surprise.

Yang simply waved it off, "He'll be fine. After all, he's more durable than me!" Yang stated, knowing that even though her semblance relied on her taking damage, he could withstand more.

Jaune was currently in mid free fall, shouting several comments all revolving around no longer being stuck on flying death traps.

"I'M ALIVE AGAIN!" Jaune shouted happily at the top of his lungs. He felt so relaxed and energized at the same time. The wind blowing quickly past him as his descending speed increased. He felt so at peace until he remembered that he needed to land without ending up like a puddle. As the ground started getting uncomfortably close to Jaune, he took a large breath, building up his aura into his lungs.

"White Dragons' Holy Breath!" Jaune yelled while throwing his head towards the ground. The large, explosive beam of light left his mouth, its sheer momentum slowing his decent to the ground, as well as breaking the ground underneath him, softening his landing area.

Jaune's feet slammed into the ground hard, forming a smaller crater within the one made by his attack. He winced and stumbled due to a sharp pain that ran up his legs, but the pain subsided as quickly as it came. He took a quick look around to try and find some of his other comrades, but had no success.

"They should have been right behind me," Jaune whispered to himself. He sniffed the air and his eyes widened in surprise. The combined smell was faint, but it was each of the different scents of his friends. The smells weren't actually around him, but above him. He slowly looked up and felt a sudden rush of anger.

"Parachutes?! Where the hell did you guys find parachutes?!" Jaune yelled at his supposed friends. He had quickly made his way over to where they would all land. Before each of the other students touched the ground, they were able to see a more than irritated Dragon Slayer giving them all a death glare. Most of the students chuckled awkwardly as they knew what was going to happen once their feet touched the ground.

Nobody could give him an immediate response. The truth was, they were pretty sure Ozpin somehow heard Jaunes' 'senile' comment, because as Jaune was forced out of the jet, each of the other students felt their scrolls alert them of one more message.

"I forgot to mention, there are parachutes available in the overhead compartments. Have fun."

The message was so simple it made them worry of their current safety. If their headmaster had forgotten to mention parachutes, was there more he had neglected to tell them of?

"Patience seemed to be in our favor, I suppose." Ren stated stoically, trying to calm down the furious fighter before him. He was still a bit unsure of Jaune and his semblance. So he tried to make the situation a bit lighter.

Jaune huffed, and then pouted, "I shoulda just shot holes in your parachutes. I shouldn't be the only one who was forced to free-fall," jaune said childishly, showing that he actually meant very little anger towards the situation. There were a few sighs of relief along with a few laughs at Jaunes' act.

After a two hour long hike into the mountain, the two teams finally made it over the last incline and cheered when they finally found the village they were meant to find. It had been one hell of a climb, but they finally made it to their destination.

"I'm ready for a nap," Jaune said with a yawn. To be honest, it took him more aura than he thought to both soften his landing and not cause his legs to completely shatter underneath him from the force of the impact.

A heavy slap on the back was the beginning of a retort towards his fatigue, "C'mon, you big baby! We are here for a reason, we might as well get started," Yang said excitedly.

Jaune wanted to fight back, but the looks he was given by the other students forced him to reconsider.

"You guys suck," he groaned. The group of eight made their way into the village. The first thing they noticed was the rather traditional looking houses. They were white with fancy rooftops and decorative doors and windows. All of the citizens wore tan robes, but some had small rips and holes. A few actually had specks of blood on them.

Once the citizens took notice of them, they stayed silent. All they did was stare observingly at the students, who in return, looked straight forward in an attempt to ignore the odd stares. One man stood before them. A man who looked like he had lived long enough to see the land of Remnant form. His face was covered in wrinkles and a few moles, along with a large, white, neat beard covering his mouth. His eyes were ragged and almost hidden of any color, but they were a dark grey.

"Greetings, are you the ones we called for?" The man asked in a tired voice. He slowly walked towards the teenagers that suddenly felt very out of place.

"Yes sir," Ren nodded. He seemed a bit more accustomed to the situation since he was a man of tradition himself. This shook everyone else out of their awkward feelings and they each stood straight, in respect of the old man.

"Well then, I'm glad that you are here. I am the head monk here. My name is Meeboku." The old man said.

"So what's the situation? We were given very little information on the matter," Blake asked curiously. Being a woman of a former 'organization,' she knew it would be for the best if they were given as much information as possible.

"It's the demon boy! He has returned!" A random bystander yelled in the crowd surrounding the old man and the students that had formed around them.

"The man among Grimm!" Another yelled.

"He's a monster!" A third proclaimed.

"CALM DOWN!" The old man yelled with sudden irritation, before letting out a heavy sigh and regaining his composure. "My apologies, the other monks here have been rather on edge due to the recent attacks."

"I thought this place was only being attacked by some Grimm. Why are people yelling about a demon or whatever?" Yang asked. This made the man frown.

"The man they speak of was once a child of this village several years ago. Our beliefs were quite the opposite of his own. Even if he was just a child, we had to banish him. I'm sorry, but I cannot go into further detail of why he was banished. All I can say is that he has returned, and with the help of Grimm apparently." He spoke, his voice hinting with the sorrow he felt of the grave predicament.

"Wait wait wait, he's getting assistance from Grimm? Like, he's friends with Grimm?" Ruby asked oddly. She couldn't find a better way to describe her thoughts on the relationship between this 'demon' and the Grimm.

"That is correct… sort of." The man stated, "From what we've been able to tell, he has influence over Grimm, as well as being a powerful warrior in his own right. We are a peaceful village, we are not capable of defending ourselves. So I ask of you, please aid us in this crisis." Meeboku pleaded, clasping his hands together in a begging motion.

Jaune stepped forward and placed one hand on the old mans' shoulder and smiled, "Don't worry gramps. We got this." A few of the monks just gaped at Jaunes' brash behavior, but none spoke up.

"Thank you, but do not take this situation lightly. This boy is no pushover. If you need anything, do not hesitate to ask." The old man finished before walking away to let the both of the teams begin their mission.

The two teams were given a large tent to use as their headquarters. Unfortunately, the townsfolk couldn't spare any furniture, so they either had to sleep in sleeping bags, or hope that the dirt floor was comfortable.

"Alright, so how are we gonna start doing this?" Yang asked bluntly, hoping to get straight to the point.

"Well, first we should scout around the area, look for any sign of Grimm. If we can find a trail, maybe we can track them to this man who controls them." Blake said.

"I'm still confused on how someone can control Grimm. I mean, they're mindless, right?" Ruby asked, cradling her scythe while it was in its compact mode.

"That isn't entirely true. Grimm act on animalistic instinct. While not using a large portion of their brain, they can elect a pack leader, which is whichever Grimm is proven the strongest. If someone were to kill a pack leader, maybe they would see them as a higher power." Ren stated informatively.

"Gah! This is boring. I didn't come here for a lecture!" Jaune yelled, crossing his arms in clear annoyance.

"Yeah, I'm with Jaune! I wanna see some action." Yang said punching her fist into the air.

"Okay fine, I elect Jaune and Yang as part of the scout group. Let's have four people scout while four people guard the village and maybe get some information," Weiss said in an annoyed tone. She already had to deal with Yang on a daily basis, but she couldn't begin to understand how Jaunes' team can stand him for more than a minute.

They all stared at each other, waiting for a few others to volunteer to join Jaune and Yang.

"I'll go," Ren said evenly as he raised his hand just above his head.

"I go where Ren goes!" Nora exclaimed. Jaune could just barely hear the silent chuckle from Ren.

"So we're basically swapping one member from our teams then?" Pyrrha said, stating the obvious, but only to confirm the new orders of the teams.

"Alright, it's settled. Let's go find a Grimm king!" Jaune yelled excitedly, already exiting the tent. Yang followed shortly after with a hasty goodbye.

An hour later, Jaune and his slightly new team searched the woods for any sort of sign. While Jaune had enhanced senses, they weren't all that useful when he wasn't sure who specifically he was trying to track. Every once in a while, a beowolf would appear, but it would be dealt with as quickly as it arrived.

"Don't Grimm travel in packs, especially beowolves?" Yang asked.

Jaune shrugged, "Maybe they're scouting too? I don't know. I may like Professor Ports' stories, but I can never get anything useful out of them."

Yang stared at him curiously while raising her brow, "How can you enjoy listening to that pervert? His stories are all self-gloating and on the first day he gave me such a creepy stare. I'm pretty sure that's illegal." Yang said while unconsciously covering her chest.

"Hold up," Ren said, being the only one truly focused in the group. Jaune and Yang stopped their conversation and slowly crept up to Ren while he sat behind a bush. Nora was already leaning over his shoulder so she could see whatever he saw.

"What is it?" Jaune asked in a loud whisper.

Ren moved from his spot to allow Jaune to see. Jaune nodded and knelt down as the sight before him filled him with confusion.

There were Grimm of all sorts in a large open field. While they may have looked organized from far away, Jaune could clearly see quite a few of them wandering in different directions. They were clearly all drawn to this spot, but they didn't seem to know why.

"Time to make some noise!" Yang said in a loud whisper. Ren quickly covered her mouth and glared at her.

"Patience for now. Do you really think it is wise to fight that many Grimm?" Ren said quickly. After a moment he felt her head shake in his grasp, indicating that she agreed with him. He let her go and backed away from the blonde.

"I can't say I dig the hand lotion," Yang said with a smirk. Ren frowned, but didn't respond.

For an undetermined amount of time, they all took shifts observing the increasing group of Grimm, except Nora. She couldn't be focused on just one thing for too long.

Once again, Jaune's turn presented itself, but this time, things went differently.

The Grimm looked restless. They were growling and sniffing the air, some were even attacking each other. Jaune watched as the impressively large group of Grimm were abruptly silenced by an undetectable source. Suddenly, all of the Grimm were facing one direction. They slowly began moving in an uncoordinated march, leaving only one figure in the field, shrouded in dark clothing.

"The Grimm are heading for the village! Now there is only one guy left in the field." Jaune exclaimed back to his friends behind him. They all were now very alert and attentive.

"We need to go back then!" Nora said in a worried tone.

"No, we need to split up from here. Nora and Yang, you two follow the group. Once the others engage the Grimm, attack from the back. Your weapons are more suited for large groups. Jaune and I will handle the man." Ren said intelligently. Jaune looked at him in awe.

"How I was made leader and not you is beyond me." Jaune said with an amused smile. Jaune and Yang were expecting protest from Nora due to her separation of Ren, but they just got a nod from the usually energetic girl.

Soon Yang and Nora left the two boys to their new opponent, who remained still in the open field.

"I can't believe you got Nora to do something away from you," Jaune said, still staring at the man in black.

Ren chuckled, "If the situation calls for it, she can be as focused as a highly trained soldier. In her own way." He said with a hint of a smile.

Both boys stepped out of the treeline and approached the man with their weapons drawn. As they approached him, they could see a menacing smirk plastered on his face.

"Finally, I've been waiting for you." He said in a dark, gravelly voice. He discarded his tattered cloak, revealing his outfit underneath. Both hunters stopped about ten feet away from him as they measured what they were up against.

The mans' face was still hidden in the dark veil of his nightmarish black hair that stuck out in several places. His body radiated with great muscular power, as well as the dark aura surrounding him. His arms were exposed in the sleeveless vest he wore over a white chest plate. The chest plate itself bearing a striking resemblance to the bone armor of Grimm. He also wore a pair of black jeans that had signs of mud and were frayed at the bottom. He had dark grey kneepads and black steel toed boots. The final thing they noticed was his gloves. They, like most of his outfit, were also black, but fingerless. They also had spikes protruding from each knuckle.

"Hey, green boy. Step aside. I want to fight him," He said, pointing his finger directly at Jaune, who just stared at him. Ren scowled at the man, but quickly regained his composure.

"Don't underestimate me, Jaune may be strong, but I'm certainly not someone you should ignore." Ren said calmly. He looked back at Jaune, a silent agreement being made between the two. While they were here to complete a mission, they weren't going to double team a single opponent. They had their respect for their fellow warrior, and Ren didn't enjoy it when he was looked upon as insignificant.

The man before them sighed, but raised his fists, "Fine chopsticks, if you think your tough, then you'll be first." He then looked towards Jaune, "But don't think I'm gonna forget about you. You've peaked my curiosity."

Ren raised his two bladed automatic pistols, and focused his eyes on his target.

"Do not disrespect me," Ren stated.

**This took a lot longer than I thought it would. Believe it or not, this took a lot of re-planning, mostly about how the teams are gonna be. I considered Blake being on their scout team, seeing as she would be the best tracker, but I found this to be more fun. I wanted to include Ren from the beginning, and you can't have Ren without Nora. Also with this new opponent, I have been waiting FOREVER to put him in. Yes, his semblance is based off of one fairy tail character, but it has a slight twist. You can guess if you want. Anyways, reviews reviews reviews!**


	17. Battle of Worthy Warriors

A gentle breeze blew through the field, causing the clothing of both fighters to sway. There was a tight tension in the air. Jaune himself was starting to feel the building tension bear down on him. He pulled on the collar of his sweatshirt with hopes to at least alleviate a portion of his discomfort, which to his annoyance, didn't ease the feeling. Within Jaune's vision were two warriors, eyeing each other, but neither making the first move.

Soon, the patience of the blonde grew short.

"So are you guys going to-?" Jaune asked, but was cut off by both fighters finally coming back to the real world. It seemed that they were waiting for Jaune to give a signal to begin, without telling him, of course. Ren quickly drew his weapons, Stormflower, with a thrust of his sleeves. Jaune never understood how those pistols managed to stay in his sleeves without falling out, and without causing Ren visible discomfort. Ren's opponent crossed his arms in front of his face and leaned forward. With a sudden burst of speed, the black haired brute was rushing towards Ren, who had begun to fire his two weapons simultaneously.

Nearly every shot hit his opponent, but a barrier of aura protected his opponent from being dealt any real damage like a form of a second, much more durable skin. Ren also wasn't able to fire a good portion of the ammunition in his small caliber weapons, since his opponent was upon him within seconds.

Ren leapt backwards in hopes of gaining more distance, but his efforts were in vein. His opponent's running speed was nothing to laugh at. Due do this new predicament, Ren was forced to move into a defensive stance, his weapons were drawn back into his sleeves so he could revert into his martial arts. He figured his opponent was also a fighter who used his fists. Given the fact that the man had large muscle mass and spiked gloves, Ren figured he wasn't far off with his guess.

Ren's opponent went for a wide right hook towards his side. The punch itself was rather slow, which surprised Ren quite a bit. Even if his opponent should be somewhat slow due to his mass, he should at least be fast enough to be a threat. Ren crouched and used his left open palm to divert the punch's direction higher than it was meant to, inches above his head. While doing this, Ren aimed his right open palm straight into his opponent's chest. When his aura filled palm touched the man's chest plate, he was surprised that he didn't hear any grunt or sign of pain. Instead, Ren looked up and saw the man grinning manically while raising his left elbow above Ren's head. Within a second, the elbow was coming down right where Ren was. With a boost of aura, Ren pushed into the earth with his feet, pushing himself away from his opponent just before the elbow smashed into Ren's head.

Ren stood up and eyed his opponent with an analytical gaze, trying to figure out why his aura palm didn't even manage to hurt him. The aura palm was an attack that bypassed any form of light armor, like what he had done with the King Taijitu during initiation. He only resorted to using his aura palm during any situation where his bullets couldn't penetrate armor, which happened more times than he'd like to admit. When he got back to the academy, he would need to find a way to increase the bullet penetration of his prized weapons before this became a trend.

The man standing opposite of Ren held an interested gaze at the green clad man. He had found that this man was not only quick, but had instinctual reflexes and high maneuverability. That last attack had him very intrigued. He could actually feel a tingle when the hunter's palm touched his armor, which certainly wasn't supposed to happen.

The man dropped his guard completely in order to form a small truce of the battle, stuffing his hands in his pockets. While Ren didn't take advantage of his opponent's vulnerability, he kept his arms up, hands open and both palms facing his opponent.

"It seems you have skill in hand-to-hand combat. That's a rare quality in these parts. Too many people rely on their weapons to fight. That's something I can respect," The bulky man said. Ren remained impassive and silent, allowing his opponent to speak.

"I'm assuming that piercing effect of your strikes is part of your semblance, correct?" The man guessed with a smirk. The man drew his hands from his pockets, but made no move to raise them to attack or defend yet. Ren continued to remain silent, but his patience was becoming increasingly withered, especially with the thought of the Grimm horde going after the village where the rest of their teams were.

"It seems like I'm going to start using my semblance with this fight, otherwise I'd have a hard time. You should feel honored you've peaked my interest enough to do this," The man's smirk turned malicious as he suddenly ran towards Ren. Ren widened his eyes at the new burst of speed, but was still in his ready defense position. As soon as the man approached Ren, he did something neither Ren nor Jaune expected.

"Take Over! Beowolf Arms!" In a flash of dim light, the man's muscles changed from large and bulky to lean and defined and were quickly covered in bone plates and black fur. Sharp claws protruded from where his fingernails originally were, roughly five to six inches longer, and were much thicker than fingernails. This change affected his arms until his shoulders met his torso, which, like the rest of him, remained the same. Ren quickly hoped back, but it was in vain as the man was upon Ren just as quickly as he had leapt away. The man let out a feral growl as he swiped at Ren. Ren tried his best to parry the swipes away, but they came quicker than Ren's reflexes could comprehend. Jaune watched as small cuts were made on Ren's body as the seconds went by. None of them boing fatal, but it only proved that Ren was having a tough time.

The tide seemed to turn for a moment when the man swiped horizontally. With a quick and desperate move, Ren leaned back and bent his knees. Ren leaned to his side mid-fall and as soon as his hand touched the ground, he used his new support to send a powerful kick into the Grimm man's stomach plating. He grunted, but the kick didn't seem to even faze him. Ren rolled away as the man made an attempt to sink his claws into Ren's stomach.

Another pause in the battle ensued, which Ren gratefully accepted this time. He needed time to heal some of his wounds. Jaune was beginning to get worried for Ren. His clothes were torn in multiple places and he was riddled with small cuts and a few deep looking cuts while his opponent remained relatively unharmed. Ren was also breathing heavily. It was well known in team JNPR that Ren had low stamina. When they got out of this fight, Jaune would have to help Ren out with that.

The man's arms reverted back to their human qualities. He crossed his arms and stared between Ren and Jaune. It was only now that Jaune finally noticed the man's eyes. They were red, just like a Grimm's. Jaune scowled slightly at the sight.

"You've lasted longer than most opponents, I'll give you that. I believe it's time we finally exchange names. How about you go first," The man said, pointing towards Ren.

Ren breathed a few deep breaths of precious oxygen, "Lie Ren," Ren stated, remaining somewhat stoic, but his composure was fading under the fatigue and pain.

The man frowned, which confused the two hunters-in-training, and then looked to Jaune, "And you?"

Jaune responded strangely, "Um… Jaune Arc?" Jaune said, a bit unsure about the man's reaction to Ren's name.

The man's frown deepened, "You guys are boring," he said. His arms uncrossed and slumped lazily at his sides. The other two boys shared a glance at each other, equally confused at the man's reaction.

"What's wrong with our names, Grimm Boy?" Jaune asked.

"Your names, they're boring. Do you not have an endearing title or form of recognition?" The man asked before scowling, "And please don't call me that."

Jaune put on a face of mock confusion, "What? You mean Grimm Boy?"

The now dubbed 'Grimm Boy' growled loudly, "Dammit, don't call me that you bastard! I am known as many things, but I will not be known as Grimm Boy!" He stopped on the ground, cracking the earth beneath the force of his furious stomp.

Ren began to question the man's sanity, but couldn't stop the smile from appearing on his face due to the sheer ridiculousness of the scene in front of him, despite the situation his was in. Jaune however was suffering from fits of laughter that didn't seem to end. He was holding hides in heavy laughter, completely oblivious to the blood-chilling glare that was being sent to him.

"Stop laughing! I am a true demon! I am the perfect cross of human and Grimm. I am the King of Grimm dammit! You should fear me!" The Grimm man yelled loudly before getting into a running position. His gaze sent only at Jaune. Jaune took notice to the man's gaze after his laughter had finally ended, now expressing a more serious attitude.

"Ren, take five. I'll handle this fight for now." Jaune said, stepping in front of Ren. Ren however was annoyed at Jaune's actions. While Ren did know his limits, and that the Grimm man's were beyond his own, it was still degrading to have this happen. He knew Jaune was stronger than himself. He had seen Jaune take on three second year students at once. Granted they did hold back somewhat, Jaune still beat them, just barely. He was sure that in a one on one fight, Jaune could beat any of the members of team CFVY. Nevertheless, Ren reluctantly nodded and backed up a safe distance so he wouldn't be hit by any stray shots from Jaune. Jaune may be powerful, but he is also an unrefined fighter, preferring to overpower his foes with his attacks.

Jaune began to slowly walk towards the Grimm man while drawing his sword and unclipping his scabbard, "You want a title with my name? Fine, I am Jaune Arc, White Dragon Slayer, son of Weisslogia, the White Dragon. Is that good enough for you?" Jaune asked the Grimm man.

The 'King of Grimm' gave Jaune an intrigued look, "You've killed your own father, who was a dragon? Damn, that's hardcore!" The man laughed manically, but stopped as soon as he saw Jaune shake his head.

"No, my father was killed by another. I was simply taught the fighting arts of a Dragon Slayer." Jaune said, now expanding his shield and holding it out in front of him.

The Grimm man shot a disappointed look at Jaune, "Then if you haven't slain a dragon, then you never earned that title. I've earned all of the names I've been given. I've earned so many I've long since forgotten my birth name. Nor do I wish to remember it." He said as he strolled towards Jaune's advancing form.

Jaune gritted his teeth, which was blocked by his shield, "I'll show you the power that can slay a dragon!" Jaune roared as he closed the distance between himself and the Man of Grimm. Jaune swung his sword in a wide overhead arc. The man sidestepped the blade and sent his right fist towards Jaune, who in return raised his shield. The shield easily intercepted the fist. Before the fist could retract, Jaune swung his shield arm out, pushing the arm outward, throwing the man off balance. Jaune took the chance and stabbed at the man's leg. Seeing the incoming attack, the man yelled "Take Over! Deathclaw Arm!" With a familiar dim flash, the man's left arm shifted into a small (For a Deathclaw arm, but proportionate enough that the arm was bigger than a human arm.) armor plate complete with a large pincer and brought the large Grimm appendage down on the sword, pinning it to the ground. Jaune's eyes widened as he tried to pull his sword back out, but was unsuccessful. The man brought his right arm back and swung it at the now stationary Jaune. Jaune quickly brought his shield up once again, but before the fist made contact, the man yelled once more.

"Take Over! Ursa Arm!" The man's right arm grew larger and black with fur and a meaty paw. With the new weight and power, the blow was much heavier against Jaune's shield. Jaune grunted as the mighty blow hit. The shield's straps snapped under the sudden pressure and flew off into a random direction. The man brought his arm back once more and attempted to send a powerful jab into Jaune's ribcage. Jaune quickly leaned to the side, the blow only grazing him. While it did hurt, the blow didn't hinder Jaune from performing his next move.

Jaune wrapped his now free and shield less arm around the large Ursa arm. Jaune knew the man could switch the arm back to a normal size, so he knew he had to work fast.

"White Dragon's Holy Breath!" Jaune roared, opening his mouth wide, letting out his white aura attack at his Grimm-like opponent. Being in such close proximity to the more explosive of Jaune's ranged attacks, the man was blown back nearly fifteen feet. Jaune, being resistant to his own attribute based attacks, was completely unharmed. With his sword now freed from the claw, Jaune raised his sword in a two handed grip.

The man remained standing, but was feeling quite a bit of pain. This was definitely a first for him. This Jaune had some power after all. The man looked up towards Jaune, who in return pointed his pristine sword at his adversary.

"Come on! I know you can do much better than that!" Jaune yelled mockingly, bringing his sword back to twirl it once before bringing back into his battle stance. Feet planted, shoulder width apart and his sword held in a firm grip in front of him.

"You want better! I'll give you better!" The man roared, nostrils flaring in anger. Jaune smirked at the challenge.

**It has been a long time huh? I've been incredibly busy with school and drama club. I've also been working on my other fanfictions as well as one that I haven't finished writing the first chapter of, but it is close. Anyways, follow and review! **


	18. Battle of Dragon and Beast

Jaune made no move to retrieve his shield. He didn't want to take his eyes off of his opponent for a second. Jaune held his sword with both hands, the blade was perpendicular to the ground.

The Grimm man took a few calming breaths before he smirked and unchanged his arm so he was back with all of his human appendages. This new opponent was actually able to inflict some damage on him. This would be fun!

"Well, I'll give you some credit. You blew me back a few feet." The Man of Grimm said. He started to slowly walk towards Jaune, who tensed up slightly at the action. Jaune was expecting the man to charge, but was surprised when he jumped into the air.

"Take Over, Nevermore Wings!" The man yelled, sprouting bony, black wings from his back. The wingspan of the wings was twice the size of the man's body. The man pushed himself high into the air before hovering over Jaune, the smirk on his face growing wider upon seeing Jaune's shocked reaction.

"What will you do, Whelp?!" The man mocked, sending multiple feathers towards Jaune. Jaune quickly rolled out of the way to avoid the volley of sharp projectiles. Jaune began to sprint to avoid being turned into a human pincushion as a seemingly endless amount of feathers were sent towards him. Jaune weaved around the feathers that landed in front of him while running to avoid the ones threatening to impale him from behind. This went on for nearly five minutes before the Grimm Man had to stop to regenerate feathers. Jaune took the opportunity immediately, getting into a solid stance and building his aura up for his signature attack.

"White Dragon's Roar!" Jaune said, firing a laser at the airborne man. Jaune growled as the man expertly maneuvered around the laser, even after Jaune tried to follow the movements with his laser until he ran out of breath. Jaune was forced to stop preparing his next attack when another volley of feathers was sent towards him.

"What's wrong Whelp? If you can slay a dragon, surely you can kill a measly Grimm!" The man taunted as he propelled himself towards Jaune at an incredible speed with the assistance of the wings. Jaune tried to time a swing with his blade, but ended up swinging far too early. Jaune took a speed enhanced punch straight into his stomach, forcing him to spit up saliva and blood. The attack winded him and he nearly doubled over in pain, but still remained standing.

The man flew back into the air, preparing to send another volley of feathers at the now less mobile Jaune. Jaune held his stomach with his left hand as he slowly inched to his left as he tried to force air back into his lungs. The Dragon Slayer's subtle movements went unnoticed by the airborne Grimm-Shifter.

"It's been fun, but now you can barely fight back. Say your prayers!" The Grimm Man said manically, sending what he thought would be the final volley of feathers necessary to end the Dragon Slayer's life. As the feathers rocketed towards Jaune, the Dragon Slayer looked down at his shield, which was now at his feet due to his subtle movement towards it. Jaune used his feet to kick the shield into the air and dropped his sword so he could hold it from the sides since the straps were broken.

Jaune gritted his teeth as he was slowly pushed back from the force behind the feathers, but he held firm until the volley stopped, allowing him to look up slightly from his shield to observe his foe.

'I need to get him out of the air and fast!' Jaune mentally yelled. Jaune was annoyed that he had very limited ranged attacks. The one attack that would really help him at the moment would be White Dragon's Holy Ray, but he didn't have enough power in his standard form to use it, and he couldn't will his White Drive or Dragon Force to activate. He was basically stuck. Unless…

Jaune remembered how he was able to activate White Drive originally, and how he learned how to activate White Drive due to Ozpin's observations of him. Jaune wasn't necessarily depleted of aura, so that was out. So he'd have to jumpstart the White Drive by eating his element. Fortunately, blocking the constant barrage of feathers should be enough to activate his White Drive.

The Grimm Man watched jaune with a grin. He should have figured that the blonde would do something to negate his attack. The Grimm man knew he had an unfair advantage due to his wings, but his curiosity and pride were getting the best of him at the moment. He knew Jaune was holding back in some way, and he wanted Jaune at full power when he beat him, just to prove that he was stronger than the Whelp.

Jaune smirked as he noticed the look he was getting from the Grimm Man. The Grimm Man was getting overconfident it seemed. This was perfect! Jaune quickly retrieved the white dust capsules from within his shield and unscrewed them all. Jaune downed all three of the full capsules at the same time with a satisfied sigh. Jaune patted his belly as a dim light enveloped Jaune. The dim light suddenly burst into a bright, misty blow that covered Jaune's whole body, radiating power. The white mist quickly dissipated, but the power remained. The Grimm Man tensed slightly at the feeling, but that just made his grin grow bigger and more menacing.

"You've just sealed your fate, Grimm Boy! Never give your opponent time to recover!" Jaune taunted as he dropped his shield and positioned his hands near his right side. The Grimm Man prepared himself for the attack, keeping his wing beat slow and strong to keep himself in the air. The space between Juane's hands formed into a small, white, glowing sphere and began to slowly grow.

"I'll give you a lesson in dragon slaying! First step, take away a dragon's ability to fly! White Dragon's Holy Ray!" Jaune yelled, raising his hands above his head and spreading them wide, allowing the white sphere to grow larger than his body. The Grimm Man was forced to fly back as a volley of white arrow-like projectiles flew at him at high speeds. The Grimm Man fired his feathers at the holy barrage to cancel the attack out, but to his surprise the feathers just phased right through. The Grimm Man was now on full retreat as the barrage gained on him. Even at his maximum speed he couldn't evade every single attack, and eventually he was clipped. This was followed by several other white projectiles hitting his body. In a drastic effort to reduce injuries to his own body, he covered his body with his wings. The attacks were relentless as they slowly tore apart the tough bone of the wings.

Jaune had to cancel the attack to conserve more aura. He could never use the White Dragon's holy Ray for too long before it ate away at his power. Juane watched as the Grimm Man fell back to the earth with a thud. Jaune heard a growl before he took a ready combat stance as he prepared for another attack. The Grimm Man slowly stood back up, looking at the damage to his wings.

The wings were torn in several places, rendering them useless. They were at least useful in the end by being his shield.

The Grimm Man groaned in annoyance before retracting the wings, "I'll have to find stronger wings. I guess it'll be another Nevermore hunt for me after this." The Grimm Man complained. Jaune stared at him curiously.

"You literally take the wings from Nevermores?" Jaune asked curiously. The Grimm Man looked at Jaune and smirked.

"You could say that, but I'm not giving away my secrets that easily." The Grimm Man stated. The Grimm Man was starting to think he'd need to use the next stage of his semblance.

Jaune readied himself, as did his opponent, before they charged at each other. Jaune raised his right fist as it glowed brightly. The Grimm Man set his own plan into motion.

"Grimm Full Body Takeover: Ursa Major!" The Grimm Man commanded to himself. His entire body glowed yellow before his body contorted and expanded into the form of a large Ursa Major, similar to the one Jaune fought in Forever Fall, but with bone plating covering the Ursa's chest. Jaune's eyes widened, but he didn't dare slow down. He wouldn't let his surprise stop him now. This fight just reached a whole new level.

The Ursa Major swung a large arm at the approaching Jaune, but Jaune dove over it and slid under its legs. Jaune quickly stood back up, but had to lean back painfully as another large arm nearly decapitated him. Jaune threw his body back up and jumped into the air.

"White Dragon's Roar!" Jaune yelled, the laser leaving his mouth on command. The attack hit, causing the Ursa Major to growl in pain. A small scratch was formed from the attack, but it wasn't enough to satisfy Jaune. He'd need to hit it much harder.

Jaune had to cross his arms in front of him when a large paw was sent at him. The powerful jab connected and sent Jaune flying back. Jaune rolled tumbled uncontrollably and bounced off of the ground a few times before he regained control of his body's momentum. Jaune looked back up, but his eyes widened as the Grimm-Shifted Man got on all fours and crouched low.

"Soul Release: Grimm Cannon!" The Ursa Major growled out. His mouth opened and released a large, pitch black orb and sent it towards Jaune. Jaune didn't have enough time to move, so he would have to negate or redirect the attack.

"The holy light of the White Dragon purifies all! White Dragon's Merciful Purging!" Jaune yelled, holding both of his hands in front of him connected at the thumbs and his fingers spread wide. The dark attack connected to Jaune's hands and began to slowly push him back, tearing up the ground beneath him. Jaune's attack was developed by Jaune himself to negate Acnologia's roar, but it should work on a Grimm-based energy attack as well since Jaune's attack focused on forcing out the tainted energy in the attack.

Jaune yelled out in defiance as the power struggle continued. The Grimm Man just watched and waited for Jaune to tire himself out, which should be soon. Jaune barely had any time to gather energy for his purging attack, so any result that could happen would help the Grimm Man.

Jaune slowly forced his hands to spread wider slowly. This began the process of separating the negative energy from the attack while redirecting the rest of the energy elsewhere. With one last shout, Jaune threw his hands to his sides. On his right side a mass of dark and deformed energy was sent into the forest behind Jaune and exploded, destroying several trees. On Jaune's left side was a grey, condensed orb, representing the Grimm-Man's aura. This was also thrown behind Jaune, but had a far weaker explosion.

Jaune leaned forward and let his arms hang loose. He was panting heavily while trying his best to focus his aura into his hands. Jaune had one last combination and then his energy would be spent. The White Dragon's Merciful Purging took much more out of him than he thought. As far as he knew, Grimm weren't meant to use energy based attacks, so how did his opponent use such a strong attack?

Ren watched the fight from a fair distance, still trying to comprehend the clash between two great powers. Ren was trying to focus on figuring out a weakness the Grimm Man might have, but there were just too many variables to focus on. He could change his body parts, add body parts, and change his whole body. Each of these had weaknesses, but he shifted too fast for any of them to be exploited.

"I'll have to re-enter the fight soon. Jaune looks like he's on his last legs." Ren said to himself as he watched the Ursa Major crawl over to Jaune, who didn't even raise his arms to defend himself.

Back to the fight, Jaune stared into the red eyes of the Ursa Major that stood only about five feet away from him.

"How were you able to do that? You just used an aura attack in the body of a Grimm!" Jaune asked.

The Ursa Major grinned, or at least that's what it looked like to Jaune.

"Since you're about to die, I'll enlighten you," The Grimm growled condescendingly, "My semblance allows me to take the souls of Grimm and use their bodies as my own."

Jaune gasped, "But Grimm don't have souls. How can you take something that doesn't exist?"

"Grimm do have souls, but they all lie dormant. They don't have the intelligence to unlock their hidden power, but I can. I can use any Grimm body I obtain to their maximum potential!" The Grimm shouted with pride. Jaune scowled in response. The Ursa Major just chuckled lowly, the body enhancing the deep sounding noise.

"Now your time has come. Time to end this!" The Grimm yelled, closing the gap between himself and Jaune. The large Grimm raised his paws into the air and made to slam them straight down. Jaune smirked as his opponent left himself wide open.

"White Dragon's Claw!" Jaune yelled, quickly slamming his fist into the Ursa Major's stomach. The Grimm's body froze completely. Jaune saw its eyes widen in surprise.

"W-what? Why can't I move?!" The Grimm asked in a panic. Jaune took a few steps back before getting in position for his next attack, which he hoped would be the last.

Jaune crouched low, raised his left hand so his palm was facing the Ursa Major while his right hand was a fist leveled at Jaune's hip. His fist became encased in a white sphere of aura, and after a few seconds, the attack was ready.

"You've left youself wide open! I'm not giving you any time to recover. White Dragon's Secret Art: Holy Nova!" Jaune yelled, launching himself at the frozen Grimm. Jaune drew his fist back before sending it into the exposed stomach of the Ursa Major. The Ursa Major looked down at Jaune, his eyes growing larger along with the pain in his stomach.

Both of the fighters were enveloped in a bright light that formed around them in a dome. The attack stirred up a large amount of dust, clouding the vision of Ren. Ren covered his eyes while trying to peak through his fingers to see the result of the attack.

After several long moments, Ren could see Jaune stumble backwards out of the dust cloud, his right fist was covered in dark blood and his breath was ragged. Whether it was Jaune's or the Grimm Man's was unclear, but Ren obviously hoped for the latter. A second later on the opposite side of the dust cloud, the Grimm Man, back in his original form, also stumbled backwards before he fell to his knees, holding his heavily bleeding stomach. The look on the Grimm Man's face clearly portrayed the pain his was feeling.

"You… You bastard!" The Grimm Man coughed out. Jaune smirked in response, but the smirk suddenly changed into a grimace as he fell forward, landing face first on the ground. Ren ran to Jaune's side in case the Grimm Man made a move to attack, but Ren didn't think he would due to the agonizing injury the Grimm Man had.

Jaune moved his head so he could look at Ren, or at least Ren's shoes, "Oh hey Ren… He's all yours now." Jaune said slowly. Despite the situation, Ren chuckled. The Grimm Man was originally Ren's opponent after all. Ren didn't see the honor in fighting the Grimm Man as he was, but he would if he had to so he could defend Jaune.

The Grimm Man looked up at Jaune and Ren and sent a heated glare at the two. The Grimm Man started to whistle quietly. Ren watched his action with a confused look, but a sound near the clearing made him draw his guns from his sleeves.

Two Grimm burst in from the clearing, both of them were Beowolves. What really surprised both Ren and Jaune was how both of them appeared to be Alpha Beowolves, old ones at that. Both of them had bone plating all over their bodies and several scars adorning their bodies.

Both Beowolves took their places at the sides of the Grimm Man, who let a bloody smirk spear on his face at the reactions of the two hunters-in-training.

"I am the King of Grimm for a reason. What is a King without his loyal guards?" The Grimm Man said with a low chuckle. Jaune tried to stand up, but his body failed him, and he fell back to the ground. Ren stood in front of Jaune, ready to defend his leader.

"These Beowolves have been in more battles than you can count, and I've trained them personally. I never let an opponent live, no matter the circumstances." The Grimm Man claimed. Ren's eyes narrowed at the Beowolves, waiting for one of them to make the first move.

Another sound near the clearing grabbed the attention of Ren and the Grimm Man, but this time Ren sighed in relief at the appearance of the new arrivals.

"What the heck happened to you guys?" the delightfully dangerous orange haired hammer wielder asked as she stood next to Ren, weapon at the ready. Yang followed immediately after, standing to the left of Jaune.

"Are you okay, Vomit-Boy?" Yang asked, concern evident in her voice. Jaune turned his head to her and smiled.

"I'm great, but what about the village?" Jaune asked. Last time he saw either of the girls, they were leaving to pursue the horde of Grimm heading towards the village. So either the Grimm were dead, or the mission was a failure.

Yang smiled at him, "You don't need to worry. We all took care of the Grimm. Nora and I got a head start to get here while the rest of the girls dealt with the stragglers. They'll be here momentarily." Yang said. Jaune sighed in relief. Yang turned her attention back to the two Grimm and the man that they were supposedly guarding. She let her emotions finally change into anger for hurting Jaune. She also had been dealt some damage from the fight she was in earlier, so her semblance was already flaring.

The Grimm Man was livid now. He was so close to ending his two opponents, but then these two girls showed up and informed his opponents that the Grimm horde that he had spent days to organize was killed AND unsuccessful. The only skilled Grimm he had on standby were right next to him. If he had the rest of his skilled Grimm, taking these kids out would be easy, but nothing is ever easy it seemed. There was only one option to take, even though it was the last that he wanted to take.

"Fall back!" The Grimm Man ordered. The Beowolves' ears perked up at the order, and in a flash they picked up their leader and proceeded to retreat. The three healthy hunters and huntresses fired any ammunition they had at the retreating group, but the Beowolves were much faster than they thought. They were gone within seconds. With the threat gone, all three of the remaining fighters focused their full attention to Jaune.

Ren checked his scroll to look at Jaune's aura level, and his eyes nearly burst out of his head when he saw the red sliver left under Jaune's picture.

"We need to get him back to the village now!" Ren informed the other two. Yang nodded and lifted Jaune into her arms while Nora went and retrieved Jaune's sword and shield.

The group wasn't even out of the clearing before Jaune passed out from exhaustion. Yang looked at his sleeping face with concern, but returned her focus to the path ahead of them. Her legs were burning from the running she was doing with Jaune's dead weight. Somehow Nora was skipping alongside her with a serious expression that clashed with her current action, and Ren was lagging a bit behind, breathing heavily, but keeping up the best he could.

Ren was frantically watching his scroll to keep a close eye on Jaune's aura level. It stayed at the same minuscule level, which meant that Jaune's aura was regenerating just as fast as it was healing him. Ren couldn't help but feel guilty due to his incompetence to deal with the Grimm Man by himself. He needed Jaune to bail him out, and then the Grimm Man got away, all because Ren was weak. Even now he couldn't keep up with the two girls. He would make sure that he started to train vigorously once they returned to Beacon. Maybe then he would be a halfway decent teammate.

The trio met the rest of the girls halfway back to the village. After a quick explanation, Jaune was handed to Ruby, who used her semblance to rush Jaune back to the village. Ruby made it back to the camp much earlier than the rest of the group. She allowed the villagers to take him into a large white building which Ruby assumed was the hospital of this village. After roughly seven minutes, The rest of the group met up with Ruby, who was waiting impatiently at the main gate so she could lead them all to where Jaune was being kept.

Once the hunters and huntresses entered the building, they were immediately led to the room where Jaune was being treated in. The treatment wasn't long actually. It was finished before the group even got there. When they saw Jaune, they took notice to the blue bandages that were wrapped around his arms and torso.

"Those bandages are called Aura Preservation Bandages," the head doctor informed, "They speed the regeneration of aura while healing his wounds rapidly, so his aura won't have to. He should be all good to go by the end of the night."

Ren, Ruby, and Yang sighed in relief. Nora happily cheered. Blake and Weiss looked indifferent, but had small relieved smiles on their faces.

Jaune was tough. It would take much more than aura depletion to keep him down.

**It's been a while. I may have made too many stories, because I've been spread between three of my stories. I revised some of the early chapters, so they are at least a little better, especially the first one. And yes, I know I gave Jaune a whole new attack. I'm going to give him more, and a few more Secret Arts.**


	19. Mission Failure Right?

Jaune woke up with a groan as he rubbed his eyes forcefully to dull the pain behind them. His headache wasn't helping his mood as he remembered what happened prior to his awakening. He passed out after a fight again? Pathetic. This was technically the third time it's happened, and he hoped it would be the last. It also didn't help that the Grimm Man was in better condition than Jaune at the end of the fight. If Ren, Yang, and Nora hadn't stepped in when they did, he wouldn't have woken up.

Jaune rolled out of the bed, expecting his legs to swing out and support him, but it seemed that his body was still exhausted from his fight because he found himself face first on the floor.

"Ow," Jaune grumbled out, tasting the dirty floor upon opening his mouth. Jaune moved his arms to push himself so he could at least sit on the floor, but found that he was still too weak to use his arms for anything too strenuous.

"Jaune, you're awake!" A cheerful voice spoke. Jaune turned his head towards the noise and saw Ruby standing at the doorway with a huge smile on her face. She was walking by Jaune's room when she heard his voice, which was why she was in Jaune's room now. Her cheery look turned into confusion when she saw his position, "Jaune why are you on the floor?"

"Hey Ruby," Jaune said with a weak smile, "I tried to get out of bed, but I'm still a bit tired. Could you help me up? I'm having a bit of trouble getting up on my own."

In a flash, Ruby slung Jaune's arm over her shoulder and ungracefully placed Jaune on the white bed. Jaune positioned himself so he wasn't stuck in the awkward position Ruby accidently forced him into.

"Hold on, I'll go get everyone!" And with that, Ruby sped out of the room, leaving Jaune in silence once more.

"It's not like I was in a damn coma. Me waking up isn't that exciting." Jaune muttered to himself.

In less than a minute Jaune was surrounded by his friends and teammates. Most of them had the same happy expression, just on different levels. Weiss and Blake were still stoic as ever, but even they couldn't help but smile at the scene before them. The one person that Jaune was concerned for was Ren. While Ren did look relieved, he also looked depressed. Jaune wasn't entirely sure why, but he vowed to find out.

"Way to go Jaune! You kicked that guy's ass!" Nora complimented, oblivious to her use of language around the still young Ruby. Yang sent her an angry look, but didn't act on her feelings. Ruby's heard it all before, but that didn't mean that Yang was comfortable with coming to terms with Ruby's maturity yet. It also didn't help that Ruby had yet to show many signs of being mature, besides her 'leader' moments.

Jaune scratched the back of his head, "Thanks, but he was still in better shape than I was after my last attack. I'm still weak compared to him. If not for Ren and you two-" Jaune gestured towards Nora and Yang, "-I would have probably been killed."

"Don't belittle yourself Jaune. You were the only one who could have fought him on equal ground. We heard what happened during the fight from Ren, and I have to say that I certainly would have been outclassed." Pyrrha said, trying to brighten Jaune's mood. It was true though. Her weapon skills would have only helped her so much against such an opponent. Her semblance would have been rendered useless after the Grimm Man started to transform.

"Still… He was able to mock me and insult me and had the power to back it up. I had to resort to consuming three containers of white dust just to stay in the fight." Jaune retorted, clenching his hands in frustration. The Grimm Man had mocked his father, mocked his abilities, and mocked his very name.

Before any of the others in the room could make their effort to boost Jaune's happiness, they were interrupted.

"Excuse me," An aged voice spoke. Jaune and the others turned their heads to the door to see the town elder, but he seemed to be in higher spirits than usual. "I would like to speak to the team leaders if I may. I'm sure you all want to leave as soon as possible, but first we need to discuss the results of the mission." The elderly man finished.

"Right," Jaune nodded in understanding. Some of the others looked hesitantly at Jaune, but didn't argue and left the room, leaving only Jaune, Ruby, and the elder.

* * *

"So…" Jaune attempted to start the conversation. This was likely to end badly. They did kill the Grimm that were threatening to attack the town, but not the Grimm Man.

"I'm sure you want to make this quick, so I'll get straight to the point," Meeboku started, clearing his throat, "I am honestly pleased to say that your mission was a success."

Jaune's jaw dropped, as did Ruby's. Apparently she had the same thought that he did.

"W-with all due respect sir, we failed to fully defeat the Grimm Man." Jaune said weakly.

Meeboku shook his head at this, "On the contrary, you did defeat him. You forced him to retreat, and you've stopped his plans of attack. I believe that would qualify as a success."

Ruby remained silent. She and the others did defeat the Grimm horde, but the Grimm Man escaped. She didn't want to say that Jaune failed his objective out loud since it would probably make him even more depressed.

This was fine, because Jaune was asking all of the necessary questions, "But he got away. I couldn't defeat him in the end. I'm sure Ren told you what happened. I was in worse shape than the Grimm Man was at the end of the fight. That's a loss in my book."

The old man's face became slightly more somber expression, "Yes, your comrade informed me on the battle. I will be honest, I sent in that request as a high ranking assignment. I expected far more experienced hunters to arrive and deal with the situation, but your headmaster thought otherwise. He told me that you and your teams were perfect for the job. The fact that you were able to force the Grimm King away is an impressive feat, and he will now surely not return for a long time."

Jaune tilted his head in confusion, "How do you figure?"

"Many of his actions and traits are similar to a Grimms. He is territorial. If he is defeated, he will not return within a large proximity of where he was defeated from until he has deemed himself worthy to challenge whoever beat him again. And since you will be far away, he will either leave us be and search for you, or he will return after several years. It's not a great conclusion to this, but it's the best I would have hoped for." The old man sighed wearily.

Jaune stared at his hands in thought, and after a few seconds of considering Meeboku's words, he asked his last question.

"So the first option makes him chase me and challenge me?"

Jaune received a nod in return.

The old man expected Jaune to be pissed at his. Jaune was not practically being hunted by a dangerous foe, but to his immense surprise Jaune started grinning widely.

"That just means I'll get to fight him again, and next time there will be no draw. I will win." Jaune stated firmly. Ruby sighed in relief to see the fire back in Jaune's eyes. If there was one thing that Ruby learned about Jaune in the short time that she had known him, it's that he was determined.

Meeboku took a few seconds to process what Jaune had said. Jaune was looking forward to the fight? Well that was different.

"I'm glad to see that this outcome is acceptable for both of us then," Meeboku finalized, "I will send the sufficient funds to your headmaster as well as a performance evaluation." Meeboku bowed, and then left the room to carry out his duty as the employer of the mission.

* * *

Later that day Jaune was given crutches to support himself as he wandered out of his room with Ruby. He said that he didn't need the wooden supports, but was eventually persuaded into it. Truthfully his aura was nearly at full capacity, so his exhausted limbs were beginning to heal. The doctor said that he would be able to walk around normally the next day.

"So what do we do now?" Ruby asked as she easily kept pace with Jaune's slow awkward movements. It was obvious that he had never used any form of crutch before.

"I guess we should call Ozpiin and figure out a way back to Beacon." Jaune replied.

Ruby nodded and pulled out her scroll. Ruby commenced a call and placed the call on a louder audio setting so Jaune could hear Ozpin.

After a few rings from the scroll, a voice was projected from the scroll.

"Ah, Miss Rose. I have received word from the village elder. So I take it that your mission was a success?" Ozpin asked.

"We eliminated the Grimm horde, but the Grimm guy got away." Ruby replied. Jaune grumbled under his breath. He was still bitter about his loss.

Ozpin heard Jaune through the scroll and chuckled, "Well you completed what the mission asked of your teams, so I will send a hovercraft to meet you about four miles away from your location. I apologize that you must walk such a distance, but that is the closest place that any sort of aircraft can land." Ozpin said. Jaune groaned as the thought of how badly a hovercraft would affect his motion sickness.

Ruby laughed at Jaune's reaction, "That's fine, thank you sir. We'll head out tomorrow. Jaune should be all healed up by then." Before Ruby could end the call Ozpin spoke up once more.

"Oh? Mister Arc was injured during the battle?" Ozpin asked.

Jaune decided to speak on his behalf, "Yeah. The guy I fought was really tough. I exhausted my body and my aura. My aura should heal my body up by tomorrow."

"Well, as long as nobody was heavily injured. Please try to be more careful Mister Arc," Ozpin requested, and then ended the call. Jaune sighed in annoyance. Even when Ozpin was trying to be professional he still showed his fatherly concern for Jaune. While Jaune appreciated it, it was still odd. Ruby also noticed the slight change in Ozpin's tone, but didn't comment on it.

* * *

After a good night's sleep, Jaune and the others were ready to move. Jaune was still a bit wobbly, but at least he could move around almost like a normal human being. Jaune waited in the town square for his team and team RWBY, sprawled out on a long, wooden bench. He knew he was at the meeting spot earlier than he was supposed to be, but he wanted some time to think for a moment. He was rarely ever given time to himself to just think. He was either training or doing something that involved classes or his friends. Not even the townspeople were up this early, so the silent and slightly breezy atmosphere was perfect for Jaune.

It seemed that someone else had a similar idea.

"You're here early Jaune," Ren asked as he approached the Dragon Slayer. Jaune wasn't all that surprised by the sudden appearance of Ren. He could smell the faint scent of herbs and flowers approaching, signifying Ren's incoming arrival.

Jaune positioned himself so he wasn't taking up the entire bench with his tall body, "Hey Ren. Yeah I just wanted some time to think." Jaune gestured to the space beside him, which Ren took. Ren closed his eyes and took a deep breath to ease himself before opening them back up and turning his head slightly towards Jaune.

"Are you thinking of anything in particular?" Ren asked, trying to make decent conversation. Now that Ren thought about it, this was the first time that they had been alone together to have a conversation. It was an uncomfortable feeling that he hadn't really known that much about his team leader due to his reclusive behavior. He did enjoy eating with the teams and throwing in a comment or two when the groups had their conversations, but he was never one for one-on-one conversations, except with Nora of course.

"Not really. Mostly just memories that I think of from time to time and other stuff. I don't really get that much time to myself nowadays, so I'm just enjoying the peace while it lasts." Jaune replied simply. Ren nodded in agreement. He has felt the same way on several occasions.

Jaune watched Ren from his peripheral vision. Ren shifted in his seated position ever so slightly. Ren seemed almost physically uncomfortable, but hid it nicely.

"I see," Ren said. He wanted to bring up one topic at the moment, but he didn't know exactly how to word it.

Jaune picked up on this easily, "Are you alright Ren? You seem like something has been bothering you since yesterday?" Jaune asked concernedly.

Ren let out a small, humorless chuckle, "I was that obvious? I must be slipping." Ren said. His stoic expression turned into a slightly more somber look. The vibrant color of Ren's magenta eyes seemed to dim a bit.

"Jaune…" Ren began, "I'm sorry for being so weak." Ren said quietly. He wasn't comfortable with saying such a thing to someone else. He knew that he was pretty average when it came to fighting ability, but to openly admit that he was weaker than another was a blow to his pride. He was still a man and a hunter after all.

Jaune now turned to Ren completely, stunned at the words that left Ren's mouth. Jaune knew something was bothering Ren, but didn't imagine it to be this. Although it did make some sense, considering the circumstances.

"What do you mean? You're a skilled hunter from what I've seen." Jaune said, trying to boost Ren's mood, but clearly to no avail.

"I mean I am weak compared to you. You were forced to fight my battle against the Grimm Man. His power was far above mine. If he had attacked me with his full strength… I would not have stood a chance." Ren said. His voice deceptively calm, the tone barely even shifting and not a single crack in his voice, but it was still obvious to Jaune that Ren was hiding the emotions he was mentally repressing.

Jaune thought of what to say. He would really have to choose his words carefully with this situation. It was odd having Ren confess such a thing to him. Ren always seemed so confident, in a polite way. Everything about Ren screamed calm and refined. His movements, his words, his battle style, everything. To see him like this made Jaune uncomfortable, but it also made Jaune a little happy that Ren was expressing any emotion around Jaune, even in these circumstances.

"Ren," Jaune started, gaining Ren's attention, "In this world, there are always those who are above you. I've gained my strength through painful means. Some of my power I didn't even give my consent to receive, but it seems that fate had other plans. The Grimm Man has probably had to endure several pain filled nights being out in the wilderness for so long and at such a young age. I'm not saying that your training hasn't made you strong. I'm just saying that no matter how strong you are, there are always those who are above you in strength, and there are those who have received more beneficial training or other means to gain their strength."

Ren couldn't help but be slightly annoyed by Jaune's accusation. Was Jaune saying that Ren hadn't trained enough? Or was it something else? Now that Ren thought about it his training was disciplined, but it wasn't too taxing on the body. It was more based on finesse rather than raw power, so his stamina wasn't exercised very well with the style. Mostly because the style was based on no wasted movements, but its weakness was that if Ren were to fight someone who can endure or overpower Ren by such a large margin, he'd be at a huge disadvantage. It was also an old fighting style, which now made him question its usefulness right now. Maybe it was just outdated for the current times.

Ren decided not to think more about his strength and more on Jaune's philosophy, "Your own words contradict themselves. If there is always someone with more strength than anyone else, there is never a strongest person, but that isn't possible. There is always someone on top. Whoever has the strength to remain at the top doesn't have to worry about those above them because no such person exists." Ren pointed out, thankful for the more philosophical conversation they were now engaged in. It at least took Ren's mind off of his emotional distraught for the moment.

Jaune smirked at Ren, "That's not true. You are right, there will always be someone who is the strongest, but that person does have something to worry about." Jaune replied cryptically. Ren looked at Jaune with a confused expression, trying to solve Jaune's odd puzzle.

"What would they have to worry about?" Ren asked, now eager to find the answer. He always liked a good puzzle, but this was going to bug him if he didn't get a satisfactory answer.

Jaune's smirk grew as he pointed at his shoes, "They have to worry about those at their feet." Jaune replied.

To Ren, Jaune's message was clear.

"So you're saying that those who possess the strength to become stronger have the ability to surpass those who are considered the strongest?" Ren asked. Jaune nodded.

"Exactly, and although you are weaker than the Grimm Man right now," Ren muttered a curse under his breath, but Jaune continued, "You can definitely become stronger than he is. It just takes time and a lot of effort. If you need help training at any point, just ask." Jaune offered kindly, outstretching his hand.

Ren stared at the offered hand, slightly stunned that Jaune would go to such lengths as to help him become stronger. Ren slowly raised his own hand and grasped Jaune's offered hand with a small smile.

"Sure thing, Jaune."

* * *

Jaune and Ren sat in a comfortable silence once more, both more happy then when they had started their conversation. This silence lasted about twenty more minutes before the others arrived. Once the others finally arrived arrived at the town square, they exchanged short greetings. Jaune laughed at seeing the tired faces of Weiss, Yang, and Pyrrha. Jaune and Ruby planned to leave early so they could return to Beacon before dark. Jaune could see a figure standing at the large opening, waiting for them. Jaune smiled when he saw that it was Meeboku.

When the young fighters approached, Meeboku focused his attention on them.

"I thank you for your services, and I wish you the best of luck for the future. Especially you Jaune. You need to grow stronger if you are to fight the threat being aimed at you." Meeboku said, a hint of sadness in his voice for forcing such a burden on Jaune.

Jaune shrugged and smiled in return, "That won't be a problem. I train all the time, and I look forward to the next time I get to fight him." Jaune sent a look towards Ren, who nodded and let a small smile form on his lips. "And I won't be alone for the fight either. Ren has a score of his own to settle."

Unbeknownst to Jaune, a woman was watching Jaune from a fair distance away. She licked her lips with anticipation.

"Soon Jaune. Soon we shall see just how string you truly are." The female muttered with glee before vanishing in a black flash.


	20. A New Encounter

The sounds of the constant ticking of clocks were the only thing that could be heard, followed by the occasional sigh from Ozpin himself.

"This is so dull." Ozpin muttered dryly to himself as he surveyed the mess of paperwork set in front of him. Contrary to popular belief, Ozpin wasn't one who enjoyed all of the responsibilities given his job. In his defense, Beacon would be hard pressed to find any of its staff enjoying every part of their jobs. Port disliked handing out tests and quizzes, as doing so created a silence in his room that he cannot stand. While standard education demands that students be tested, Port administers as few tests as possible.

Oobleck disliked grading papers, since it required him to remain in one spot and concentrate on one task. He enjoyed being more active and outspoken with students, so he tries to steer away from as many homework assignments and tests as possible.

Then there was Glynda… there was enough said in that statement. Ozpin sometimes wondered why she chose to be his assistant when he accepted his role as Beacon's headmaster, but he assumed that it was to keep him in line. He was a bit eccentric at times, if launching students into the woods was anything to go by.

Back to Ozpin, he leaned back in his chair as he eyed the paperwork before him. He actually considered just burning it or something so it wasn't such an eyesore for him.

"I hope something interesting happens today." Ozpin said in an almost child-like manner.

"We're back!"

Ozpin looked up from his paperwork-covered desk with a small smile at the sound of a familiar voice. The voice was immediately followed by his office door being harshly kicked open to the point where the doors nearly flew off their hinges. Ozpin didn't care all that much. He was used to it after all.

'I suppose this will do.' Ozpin thought with a slight mental cheer. Jaune would be his salvation when dealing with the evil paperwork scattered on his desk it seems. He didn't even care if he would need to buy a new lock for the door that had just been forcefully opened.

Ozpin rested his gaze upon the group that he had sent out to the mountains to eliminate the Grimm that had been terrorizing the locals. The first person that drew in his attention was unsurprisingly the young Dragon Slayer with his foot outstretched and a large grin on his face. Weiss looked like she was about to burst into a yelling mess, interpreting Jaune's actions as unprofessional. Ruby and Yang were chuckling nervously along with Pyrrha. Ruby and Yang may not be as disciplined as Pyrrha, but they knew when to act mature… in most cases, this being one of them. Jaune wasn't trying to be unprofessional, he was just being himself. Not like he knew better.

Ren sighed as he squeezed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. Nora jumped on Jaune's back yelling 'Again!' It seemed that she enjoyed Jaune's flashy entrance as much as Jaune himself did. Jaune surprisingly kept his balance on one leg despite Nora's sudden desire to ride piggyback on him.

"Yeah, let's find some more doors to kick down!" Jaune replied with enthusiasm, earning himself a loud cheer from the ginger clung to his back. Ren looked at the two with something akin to fear. One Nora was enough, but Ren now realized that Jaune was like a male version of Nora!

Before the childish duo could leave, somehow forgetting their reason they were in Ozpin's office or the fact that Ozpin was still watching them with an amused smile, Weiss finally snapped.

"Jaune, how could you act so childish around the headmaster?! We are here for a professional meeting!" Weiss exclaimed as she stomped her way in front of Jaune, quickly blocking his view of the cast office space.

"Um… habit?" Jaune replied sheepishly, finally lowering his outstretched leg. He wasn't taught much in the form of professionalism. He was only taught how to fight by a dragon and how to blend in with society by Ozpin. Jaune's social etiquette was still lacking in several areas, such as meetings.

Weiss huffed in annoyance while crossing her arms and glared at Jaune, "You need to learn respect. You can't just barge in on your superiors acting like you know them personally."

Jaune was about to point out that he did know Ozpin personally, but he could see just past the Ice Queen's head to see Ozpin give him a reminding look. People weren't supposed to know about their familiarization of one another. So Jaune covered up his near slip up by scratching the back of his head and grinning, "I'll try to remember that."

Ozpin leaned back in his chair and cleared his throat, "No need to be so strict Weiss. He's just being himself. I welcome such attitude with open arms. Well, unless Miss Goodwitch is in the room." Ozpin finished with a chuckle.

The eight hunters and huntresses were soon found close to Ozpin's desk, explaining their completion of the mission. Ozpin didn't say anything, but showed that he was indeed listening by nodding at important points. Once the individual accounts of the mission were complete, Ozpin pulled a sheet of paper from the pile on his desk. Then he opened a drawer and reached his hand inside, pulling out a stamp and ink.

"This is the mission letter from the monk who gave our school this task that has been printed by the school as soon as it was received through my scroll. He says that you've completed your task, which means that I will conclude your mission's success by stamping it with my symbol. So basically, congratulations on completing your first mission. You've made me and all of Beacon proud." Ozpin said with expressed pride in his voice.

All eight students were embarrassed to different extents by the direct praise of the headmaster, even Jaune. Ozpin gripped his cane that was leaning on his desk and tapped it on the floor once. The simple action gained the attention of the students that were in the room once more.

"Furthermore, seeing as how it is still early in the afternoon. I will allow you all to take this day to relax and do as you wish. No need to attend the afternoon classes." Ozpin said, already prepared for the youthful cheering from the still young students in front of him. He was once young as well. He knew how dreadfully boring academic education was to the minds of the youthful, especially after a taxing event such as a dangerous mission.

"Hell yeah!" Jaune's projected voice was heard over all. Weiss seemed about ready to explode on him once more for using such vulgar language around the headmaster, but seeing Ozpin's expression not change in the slightest, she fought down the urge to almost literally beat some manners into the loud blonde.

Once the cheering died down, the students made their way to the exit of the room all while saying their 'thank you's to the kind headmaster. Just as they were about to leave the ticking office, Ozpin made one final statement.

"Actually, I recommend you spend this time to go down to Vale and see the preparations for the Vytal Festival. It is quite interesting to witness the start of something so extraordinary, and you can see some of the early arrivals who will be attending the tournament this year." Ozpin said with a smile.

The students sent him appreciative nods and walked away to an undetermined destination. Without a set in stone plan they weren't sure what to do.

"Well I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going down to Vale. I am quite interested to see the preparations of the Vytal Festival." Weiss said with a smile and her arms crossed, making her plans affirmative.

"I'll go too! I've got nothing else to do anyways." Ruby followed, walking up to Weiss, who had separated herself from the group in order to figure out who was going to join her on her little adventure. So now there were two girls separated from the group of eight.

"I'm in." Was all Yang said as she joined the two girls. Blake quickly followed without a word. She simply just seemed to want to go where her team goes. As quiet and introverted as she seemed, she didn't like to be completely alone. Thtere might actually be a nice bookstore down in Vale as well.

The four girls looked expectantly at team JNPR. Jaune wanted to see if his team was going to join the girls. Jaune wasn't even sure what the Vytal Festival was, so he wasn't sure if he wanted to go or not yet.

Unfortunately, they seemed to want to do other things.

"I'll have to pass on that. I'm exhausted. I'm just going to go take a nap." Ren said with a dismissive wave, not waiting for a second for any sort of response. He must really want to take that nap apparently.

"Wherever Renny goes, I go!" Nora exclaimed as she quickly caught up to her best friend, who merely sighed and just allowed this to happen. Jaune looked over at Pyrrha, expecting her to at least have a positive answer, but the look on her face said it all.

"I apologize, but I must inform my family of recent events and today happens to be the only day of the week I can talk to them. It will take a while, so I don't want you all to wait for me. Go have fun in Vale." Pyrrha said apologetically with a small smile.. She did actually want to go down to the festival, but family came first.

As Pyrrha walked away with a wave, Jaune felt four pairs of eyes stare expectantly at him as he slowly turned his attention back to the girls that made up team RWBY. Weiss was impatiently tapping her foot while Ruby was giving him pleading puppy dog eyes. Yang was giving Jaune the 'come here' gesture with her finger which, if Jaune were any more intelligent with the ways of women, could have been easily misinterpreted as a more seductive than inviting. Blake just stared at him, apathetic about having Jaune tag along. It's not that she disliked him. It's just that she wasn't an expressive person, so she just waited patiently for his response.

"I... guess I've got nothing better to do. Sure, count me in!" Jaune said happily, electing a cheer from Ruby and Yang. Weiss already began walking towards the docks, having waited long enough to get to Vale. The remaining four quickly caught up to her, all excited to get to Vale.

Once they all arrived to the docks, Jaune began to get nervous for one obvious reason that at this point the entire group of friends knew from their return trip from their first mission.

"U-um… are we taking a shuttle down to Vale?" Jaune asked as he raised a shaky hand and pointed at the cluster of small airships that were parked at hangers.

Weiss gave Jaune a look, as if to ask if he was serious. "Are you kidding? Of course we are! Vale is more than a dozen miles away from here. There's no way we are walking." Weiss said with annoyance. Honestly, just what was Jaune? He was like her polar opposite.

Jaune's nervousness faded momentarily as he proudly pointed his thumb at himself. "I'm a Dragon Slayer of course!" Jaune said, but one look at the shuttles brought him back to his nervous and sickly state, "Who just so happens to suffer from severe motion sickness."

Yang gave him a rough pat on the back, a mischievous grin plastered on her face. "Well, Mister big tough Dragon Slayer, what kind of hunter would you be if you didn't overcome your greatest weakness?" Yang said, obvious to the other girls that she was baiting him, which he easily took hold off.

"Um… a motion sick one?" Jaune responded cheekily while slowly inching away from the girls, suddenly not feeling all that exited for their trip to Vale.

Yang wasn't done yet though, "And what if by chance, you ran into the Grimm Man while riding a mode of transportation?" Yang asked while resting her hand on Jaune's shoulder.

Jaune looked down for a moment, and then brought his head back up with a look of anger.

"He'd probably kick my ass again." Jaune mumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets like a child that just lost a fight. His pride taking a heavy blow at admitting an inevitable loss at the hands of the Grimm Man if they were to fight in such a situation.

Yang's smile grew, Jaune was now open for the kill. "So think of this as a form of training. If you can conquer your motion sickness, then you can beat the Grimm Man!" Yang said enthusiastically. Jaune looked at Yang with wide eyes, as if she had just uttered the most incredible thing in the world.

Suddenly, his sickly expression shifted into one of determination. "Yeah! I'll beat my motion sickness, and then I'll beat that bastard's ass!" Jaune said, throwing his hands into the air with a cheer. He quickly ran over to the nearest shuttle and disappeared into the door.

The red, white, and black trio looked towards their yellow teammate, who was sporting a grin that was sly and victorious. Yang had just manipulated someone into doing something so trivial without much difficulty. It was like making a dog chase a stick into a Veterinary Clinic.

"You do realize he's going to be mad at you for that, right?" Ruby asked, a bit disappointed in her older sibling for misleading her friend like that.

Yang just waved it off, "We don't want to be here all day. He was going to have to get in that shuttle one way or another." Yang said, walking toward said shuttle. Ruby could think of no retort, since her sister's tactic did produce results. Blake and Weiss were equally glad to finally get moving again.

"Um… will he be all right?"

Yet another passerby asked as they glanced over at a young blonde teenager sitting with four girls. The blonde in question was green faced and had sweat pouring off of him.

At this point Yang was getting annoyed. This was the seventh good samaritan to show concern for Jaune, and at this point it was just getting absurdly repetitive.

"Like I've already told the other six people, he's fine. Now do what they all did and leave please." Yang not so politely asked. The words may have seemed good mannered, but the tone of her voice was filled with hidden promises of pain.

"Y-yes ma'am!" The passerby saluted out of fear and scampered off, a literal tail between his legs since he was a faunus.

"Please just kill me…" Jaune mumbled weakly. He was honestly surprised he was even able to form words in his state. Right after the airship began its flight to Vale, Jaune realized that he had been tricked, but it was already too late for him to do anything about it.

"Nope!" Ruby replied to his plea simply.

"Ugh… how much longer are we on this deathtrap?" Jaune asked as he tried and failed to raise his head.

Blake glanced up from her book to glance at their estimated arrival time on the holographic screen that was standard on every shuttle, "About ten minutes, but that's a rough estimate." Blake replied in her normal monotone before returning to her book.

Weiss was staring out of the window with barely contained excitement, "Oh how I wish we were already there. You all wouldn't believe all of the planning that goes into this event! All of the cultures joining together into one. Ah, it's just so exciting isn't it?" Weiss asked rhetorically.

"Yay…" Jaune managed with a weakly raised fist.

As the shuttle finally touched the ground, Jaune attempted to get a head start while the shuttle was still making minute movements to make a precise landing. This proved to be a mistake as all his efforts did was land him face first onto the floor. Jaune was lifted up easily by Yang, her right hand gripping the hood of his sweatshirt. Yang grinned in amusement as a result of his actions.

With the shuttle finally landing, Jaune man handled his way to the main exit, leaping out of the still opening doors, just barely squeezing through the exit. Jaune kneeled down to the ground and proceeded to try to hug the pavement.

"Oh solid ground, I'll never leave you again!" Jaune proclaimed as he rubbed his cheek upon the blessed earth, completely ignoring the odd looks he was receiving along with the amused ones of his traveling companions.

"You do know we will have to return to that shuttle tonight correct?" Weiss said with a smirk, taking Jaune's plight with the humor of one with a cold heart.

Jaune abruptly stopped lovingly rubbing his now red cheek on the ground and slowly turned his head to meet Weiss's gaze.

"How about we don't talk about such things? How about we enjoy the present and ignore the future at the moment?" Jaune said with a threatening tone, one that didn't seem normal. Wiess actually felt scared under the harsh stare of the Dragon Slayer.

After receiving a small nod, Jaune immediately reverted back to his normal, cheerful self. "Great, let's go then!" Jaune said as he strode off with the other girls in tow. Weiss's jaw dropped at the fact that Jaune was just toying with her.

"H-hey! Get back you… you ingrate!" Weiss shouted as she caught up with Jaune and the other girls.

The group of five found their way to a series of shops located in downtown Vale. Jaune was evidently forced to become a pack mule as the girls began a shopping spree, mostly Weiss. Jaune would object to such treatment, but stopped in his tracks when he received a chilling glare from Weiss herself. Soon Yang gave into her desire to search for new luxuries, buying in bulk. Blake and Ruby didn't buy much, which wasn't surprising. Ruby only brought small snacks from food stands on occasion and Blake just bought a few books for herself.

"So we're gonna do something else at some point, right?" Jaune asked his short companion, Ruby. His arms were currently being used as bag hangers as Weiss and Yang continued their shopping sprees. Blake checking out her books from a bookstore a few shops down from where he and Ruby were. He prayed to whatever merciful god was out there that Blake would at least carry her own purchases.

Ruby remained by the knight's side throughout most of his endeavor while she ate from a bag of chocolate, "I sure hope so, or else this trip would be a bummer." Ruby said, slumping over.

Jaune rolled his eyes, "Oh good, I'd hate for this trip to be a bummer for you." Jaune mumbled sarcastically, feeling the noticeable strain his arms were being put in. Seriously, at what point will he start cracking the floor with the combined weight of his body and the clothes he was carrying.

Weiss emerged from a nearby dressing room, a content smile on her face. She strode over to a cash register and placed her bags on the counter. The cashier's eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he looked at the amount of clothes this woman was buying. Not bothering to question a customer, he scanned the clothes with practiced ease. After scanning all of the clothes, the cashier asked for cash or credit. Weiss's answer was to swipe her credit card without a word, knowing that she easily had enough to cover her purchases. The cashier handed her the bags back and wished her a good day. The cashier watched as Weiss walked back to her two friends, and the cashier was surprised yet again when he saw the one male of the group carrying an ungodly amount of bags with only some struggle. He wasn't sure what was more surprising, the fact that someone had bought that many clothes (Not knowing Yang was also a part of that contribution) or that a single man was able to carry that much weight without letting his arms falter. The only real sign of the males exertion was his clenched teeth.

"Are we done yet?" Jaune asked, an underlining plea in his voice. Ruby noticed that Jaune's voice had started to take a strained edge.

Weiss huffed, "Quit complaining, we are almost done. Though I must say, I'm surprised that you are still able to hold up that many bags. I would've gone through at least three servants at this amount of clothing." Weiss said, giving Jaune what he assumed was a compliment.

Jaune would've scratched the back of his head if he were able to raise his arms any further up, "Lots of training." Jaune replied with a smile that seemed to be less and less natural as the dreadful shopping day progressed.

One shop in particular caught their eyes, the reason being was the fact that the front wall had a massive hole in it and caution tape was bordering the crime scene. Two detectives were taking notes of each piece of information they had received so far.

"What happened here?" Ruby asked as the group of five approached the crime scene. Jaune's hands were clenched tightly, already having a good idea of the situation. He had tried to stop something similar once before.

'Roman…' Jaune thought gritting his teeth together in frustration. None of his companions seemed to notice though.

"Robbery, second dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle." The bearded detective replied, walking away to resume his job.

Their next destination was the docks, which wasn't pleasant at all for Jaune. His enhanced sense of smell basically forced him to smell dead fish and salt water Before they even arrived, each step was worse than the last because the scent was getting stronger until they finally reached the edge of the docks.

"Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?" Yang asked, also not particularly fond of their new destination.

"Ugh, they smell like fish." Ruby said while pinching her nose in order to stop the invasive scent from penetrating her nose.

'Oh you have no freaking idea Ruby.' Jaune thought in dismay.

"Ozpin said that foreign students will be arriving by ship today, and I just so happen to know that the ones arriving today are from Vacuo." Weiss said with a dignified smile. "I believe it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom." Weiss finished with a hand over her chest.

The sound of a low growl alerted the girls of their male companion behind them. They all turned to look at Jaune, who tried to scratch the back of his head out of habit, but the bags hanging from his arms stopped him from doing so, making the action look very awkward.

"I, uh… haven't eaten yet today." Jaune said with an embarrassed chuckle.

Weiss sighed in exasperation and rolled her eyes, "Then why don't you go and get some food? I don't feel like listening to you or your stomach complain later." She practically demanded.

Jaune immediately perked up and dropped the bags without much care, his mind focusing on more important things, like food. "Hell yeah! Time to find some food!" Jaune declared, sprinting away from the four girls.

"Hey!" Weiss shouted, not exactly appreciating the way Jaune just treated their new purchases.

"He won't wander too far right? I don't think we can carry these around ourselves." Ruby asked with slight worry.

Weiss waved off her concern, "Not like it matters. He'll find us again one way or another." She concluded, keeping her eye open for any new arrivals from Vacuo in order to spy on… welcome them.

* * *

"What to eat… what to eat…" Jaune muttered to himself, tapping his chin in thought. This was a tough decision for him now that he was back in the shopping district. There were food stands at every corner, just ripe for the consuming.

After much thought, Jaune finally decided on what he wanted, "I'll just buy something from each food stand!" Jaune yelled with a happy grin. The food booths were about to make a profit.

So in the next ten minutes, Jaune nearly emptied his wallet for food. The sacrifice was not in vain however, as now he was eating several different varieties of food. He was truly in heaven, but someone would soon bring him back down to earth.

Jaune, being the blissful one he currently is, wasn't paying much attention and was walking down the center of the road without much of a care. His arms were holding a large pile of food with a surprising amount of balance. The pedestrians that he passed looked at the spectacle as if he were some sort of street performer.

With his guard down, there was no way he could have foreseen what happened next.

As Jaune rounded a corner, just a few blocks away from the docks, he felt something run straight into him. Jaune watched in horror as he lost his grip in his food as it slowly and dramatically fell to the ground. The person that ran into him also fell, but with impressive dexterity, managed to roll with the momentum of his fall and land back onto their feet.

"Sorry!" The now definitely confirmed male said as he took off running again. Jaune's eyes went from his food to the direction the man ran, a scowl now planted onto his face.

"Hey, get back here you prick!" Jaune roared as he quickly stood up and gave chase to the person who now officially ruined his day.

Jaune followed the scent of the man, which smelled like bananas, until he was a few meters away from an alley. Jaune watched as the man proceeded to run few feet up the wall of one building, kick off that building onto the fire escape of the building across from him and with a fine display of flexibility and acrobatics, landed on the roof of the first building.

Jaune ran until he was just five feet away from the building that the banana scented man had walked on.

"I can't do that fancy stuff that he just did, but I don't need to when I've got power!" Jaune declared, crouching low in preparation for a jump. As he pushed off of the ground with his legs, he pulsed his aura to his feet, allowing the power of his semblance give him a propelling boost. With a brief flash of light and small craters on the ground below, Jaune landed of the same roof as the man who ruined his meal.

Sun Wukong turned his head as he heard a heavy thud behind him. Curiosity got the best of him, wondering what in the world could have gotten on the roof with him. There was no way the cops that were chasing him were that athletic, so who or what could it be?

Sun was greeted by a heated glare from a teenager around the same age as him. The teen's eyes seemed to burrow within Sun's very core. Sun was tempted to draw his weapon due to all of the killing intent he was feeling rolling off of the blond teen, but something felt off about it. So Sun decided to humor the teen, who made no move to advance and attack… yet.

"You…" the blonde teen muttered in a growl. Sun took a hesitant step back, but didn't raise his hands or draw his weapon to defend himself.

"You… ruined my meal!" the teen yelled. This completely took Sun by surprise. How the hell did Sun ruin his meal? He didn't even know this guy! Sun was actually doing well for himself in his trip to Vale! Within the ten minutes of his arrival to the docks all he had done was steal a banana, agitate some detectives and plow straight through a person… wait a minute.

"Were you the dude I ran into?" Sun asked curiously, eyebrow raised.

"Yes! You made me drop all of my food!" the teen yelled as he threw his hands up in anger, "This city food isn't cheap you know!"

Sun chuckled at that, "Oh I know, believe me. And I said I was sorry." Sun attempted to reason, but now that he thought about it, that was a pretty lame way of apologizing.

Jaune thrust a finger toward Sun, "Buy me more food or I'll kick your ass!" Jaune demanded, trying to look as menacing as possible, but was failing considering his attire was a sweatshirt and blue jeans.

Sun smirked, "Sorry dude, if I had to buy all that food back, I would have a negative amount of cash." Sun replied, knowing what the next outcome would be. In all honestly he was looking for a good fight. He was curious what Vale had to offer in terms of fighters.

Jaune lowered his outstretched hand slowly, until it was limp at his side, "You asked for it then, Banana Man." Jaune said darkly, before charging at Sun.

Sun, who hadn't been expecting Jaune to have as much speed as he was showing and was a bit thrown off by the odd insult, barely managed to dodge a straight punch by ducking low. Thinking quick, Sun grabbed Jaune's wrist and placed his other hand under Jaune's upper arm. Using Jaune's momentum, Sun threw Jaune over his shoulder right into the ground.

Jaune recovered quicker than Sun had anticipated, and pushed himself into a crouch and went for a leg sweep. Sun was tripped, but recovered with a roll and stood back up in a defensive stance, smirk still in place. Jaune was already on his feet before Sun and was charging once again.

The two fought with fists for a good two minutes, and within that time frame Jaune had discovered something. Sun's fighting style was impressive.

Sun was nimble and quick, but most of all he was unpredictable. Jaune's straightforward fighting style was a bit outmatched by Sun's exotic one. Jaune was so very tempted to use his White Dragon Slayer abilities, but last time he used them unauthorized in any civilized area he had gotten in huge trouble with Ozpin and Glynda. He shivered at the thought of being under Glynda's terrifying gaze again.

Jaune wasn't exactly losing, but he certainly wasn't winning either. Despite being difficult to block, Sun's attacks didn't have enough stopping power to really faze Jaune. Neither fighter pulled out their weapons. Both were at least smart enough to know that doing so without being in a life or death situation or an arena style fight was just dumb.

Sun went for a chop to Jaune's neck, but Jaune retaliated by leaning back and kicking Sun in the stomach. Sun was sent skittering back a few feet, but was able to stay standing. Jaune rolled his neck, which had already been hit a couple of times, and heard his neck crack.

"Heh, this is pretty fun!" Jaune exclaimed, rubbing his neck.

Sun, who was worn out, smiled at Jaune, "Yeah, it's been a while since I've had a fight like that. You hit like a freaking truck!"

Jaune laughed, "I'm surprised I even hit you. You've got some crazy moves." Jaune replied, running his hand through his sweaty hair.

Sun let out a satisfied sigh, "Look, I really am sorry about what I did, but I really can't buy you all that food back. I barely have enough for myself! Those Beacon people don't exactly give you rooms to sleep in when you're only coming for the tournament." Sun said, clearly annoyed at the outrageous costs of Beacon. Sure, they were a top hunter school, but did foreign students really need to pay so much for a room?

Jaune waved his apology off, "Eh, don't worry about it. I'll just go back to Beacon and get food there. It doesn't cost anything for students."

Sun raised an eyebrow, "You're a student at Beacon?" Sun asked. While a dumb question considering what just transpired, he had not met any of the students yet, unless those girls he ran passed (and the one he winked at) were also students. They sure seemed equipped enough.

Jaune nodded cheerfully, "Sure am!" Jaune replied. Before more could be said, his scroll went off. Jaune pulled out his scroll and read the message from Ruby.

_Hey, we're heading back to Beacon. Blake and Weiss are having an… argument, so I suggest you hurry before we leave without you._

_Ruby_

Jaune sighed and tucked his scroll away, "Well there goes my day. Hey, I'll see you around… um…" Jaune mumbled, tapping his chin trying to remember the other person's name.

Sun chuckled, "The name's Sun. Sun Wukong."

Jaune smiled, pointing his thumb into his chest, "Well I'm Jaune Arc! Don't be a stranger at Beacon!" Jaune yelled, already running off in the direction of the shuttles.

Sun watched as Jaune, without hesitation, jumped off of the four story building. He shook his head in disbelief.

'Well it looks like I've made a friend. I wonder if he and Neptune would get along?' Sun wondered, before his thoughts went back to the black haired girl, 'It would be really convenient if she also went to Beacon.'

**This is the first thing I've written in like two months.**


	21. Pros and Cons

Jaune wasn't sure how to categorize his day into Vale. It had several pros and cons within it, which made it confusing for him to feel annoyed or satisfied sine he refused to be one or the other.

Currently, he was very annoyed.

He was able to go to Vale with some of his friends, but none of his own teammates could join him and the friends he went with used him like a pack mule.

He got into a fun fist fight with a capable fighter, but that same fighter ruined his large meal that he wanted to eat with extreme gusto and essentially left him without money or food.

He believes that he made a friend that day, Sun if he remembered correctly, but now he had to haul ass to the air docks because two of the four people he had gone into Vale with got into an argument and weren't going to wait for him.

That last one actually hurt his feelings a bit, but he would forgive and forget if their reason for ditching him was good enough. If not, then he would probably give them the silent treatment… for about a day before he forgets about it anyways.

"Damn, it's getting dark out." Jaune groaned as he noticed the color of the sky had taken a dark blue color as opposed to the orange of the sun going down. Jaune was struggling to figure out where the airship docks actually were, even if he was sure that he was already too late to catch a ride back to Beacon. To him, every single one of the large buildings looked the same, and Vale really didn't have any significant landmarks besides Beacon Academy. Jaune soon found that he had an absurdly terrible sense of direction. Asking people for directions proved to also be ineffective. By this time of the day there were very few people out on the streets, and those that were wanted to return to their homes as soon as possible for safety reasons. So the vague instructions he received were poor at best. Jaune barely had any time to confirm any of the multiple questions he had before the person he would be talking to would be gone with weak warnings to stay off of the streets.

This made Jaune scowl and clench his fists in anger. Had crime really gotten to people this much? Roman and his goons as well as the White Fang gave people a reason to feel fear obviously, but Jaune had no idea that it had escalated to this level within the city itself where people were too scared to walk the streets at night.

Sighing in resignation, Jaune pulled put his scroll and sent a message to his team, Ruby, and Ozpin.

'Kinda got lost looking for the airships in the city. I won't be back tonight. I'll hope onto the first airship I can tomorrow.'

'Jaune'

Jaune tucked his scroll away sat down at a nearby bench to consider his current options. So he was lost in a large city with a very little amount of cash and he was alone. Not the best situation he could have found himself in, even if it was for one night. Jaune ran his hands through his hair and scanned his surroundings. He was currently in a small park, with only a few other pedestrians nearby. Two were a teenage couple that was behind a tree, thinking that they were being discreet, but not for Jaune and his enhanced senses.

Deciding to ignore the couple due to the odd sounds he was hearing, Jaune unstrapped his armor and sword/shield before gently placing them in the space below the bench and laid his body on the wooden bench while pulling his hood up for a bit of comfort and propping his feet up on the arm rest on the other side of the bench. He didn't feel like sleeping in some alley and he certainly didn't have enough money for a hotel room, so sleeping outside seemed to be his only option.

Jaune's gaze rested on the starts above him. It was somewhat difficult to get a clear view of the open sky from within the city, but in this park was fairly open with only a few trees, and none of them were close enough to obscure his vision is any way. Jaune didn't dislike the night, but he did enjoy the luxury of a cushion underneath him. This bench certainly couldn't give him that comfort.

"I guess this'll be like old times." Jaune mumbled, remembering how poorly he lived when he was on his own. Back then, he was fairly efficient when living in the woods, able to gather his own food and find his own water, but here in the city money got you everything. He really did want to eat something, if his growling stomach was something to go by. Jaune idly rubbed his stomach, mentally cursing his lack of cash. He didn't know how he could possibly get cash this late at night. He sighed in resignation, it was only for tonight.

…

…

"I really wish I had some food." Jaune groaned childishly, rubbing his abdomen in hopes that it would sate his hunger problem.

'It's not like a meal is gonna fall into my lap.' Jaune thought sadly.

"Why are you lying on a bench?" A female voice asked.

"Yeah, are you like, a bum or something?" Another female voice asked. Strangely enough both of the voices sounded identical. That was certainly a first for Jaune.

With that in mind paired with Jaune's child-like curiosity, Jaune turned his head to look at the voices that were obstructed by the side of his hood. What he saw surprised him slightly.

One of them was a girl with a white strapless dress and long, straight, black hair. Her accessories include a large white flower hairpin above her left ear, a white feather scarf, a silver pad with cyan and red feathers on her left shoulder, white gloves, a small silver bracer over the glove on her left arm, a bow in the center of the top-most part of her bodice, a silver chained belt, cyan wings on the lower back, and long white boots with thin heels. Her eyes were a bright green, and she had teal eyeliner.

The other was a girl with the same hair and body shape, but her clothes were fairly different. She had the same eyes, but her eyeliner was red, along with her dress. Jaune also found her dress odd, but didn't comment yet. Her dress was red and black, but the material had newspaper articles printed on it. Jaune wasn't sure if her dress was actually made out of newspaper or if it was just the design. Her accessories include large red and white feathers above her left ear, black fur hanging off her shoulders and held at the front by a dark-gray chain, red gloves, a black bow tied around her waist, and long red boots with very high stiletto heels.

Jaune swung his legs over to the front of the bench and sat upright to give the two girls his full attention. He really wasn't very tired anyways so it wasn't like they were interrupting his sleep in any way. He also needed a good distraction to divert his attention away from his empty gut.

Jaune stretched his arms over his head, and then let them rest on his knees as he leaned forward to closely examine the two. His eyes darted from one to the other. The girl in red seemed slightly uncomfortable by the way his eyes shifted from herself and the girl next to her while the girl in white seemed to get more and more annoyed as this went on.

"Why do you look so similar?" Jaune asked curiously, not used to seeing identical twins before.

The girl in red tilted her head in confusion as to how somebody didn't know the obvious answer to his question while the girl in white visibly scoffed and crossed her arms.

"Are you an idiot? What kind of dumb question is that?" The girl in white said, leaning forward to get a better look at the hooded blonde. Unknown to him, his hood concealed a good bit of his face and hair, so only his mouth and the bottom of his eyes were visible.

Jaune, not one to enjoy being insulted for anything, stood up tall and pointed his finger at the girl in white, "Hey, who are you callin' an idiot?!" Jaune asked with an almost furious expression on his face. That's another thing to chalk up for the 'con' list of his day, getting insulted by two girls that looked alike. Well only one had insulted him so far, but still. They looked the same so he could say that they both insulted him.

"You that's who! What kind of idiot doesn't know what an identical twin is?" The girl in white asked in a condescending manner and smirked, not backing down even though Jaune was almost a foot taller than her.

Jaune felt his eye twitch at the remark, "Well sorry, but I don't know those kinds of things. If you're going to just insult me, then leave me alone so I can sleep." Jaune demanded, sitting back down on his bench, waiting for the girls to leave before he lay back down onto the bench fully.

Jaune saw the girl in white about to retort with something, but the girl in red, who had been impassive until now, whispered something in the other girl's ear. They whispered back and forth to each other until the girl in white took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The girl in red smiled and kneeled in front of Jaune.

"Sorry for my sister, she can be a bit rude when she wants to be. Which is basically all the time," The girl in red said casually, ignoring the 'Hey!' she heard behind her, "My name is Miltiades, but you can just call me Miltia. My sister is Melanie." The now dubbed Miltia gestured to herself, and then her sister who crossed her arms and looked away.

Jaune smiled and removed his hood, "Well I'm Jaune Arc! I already like you better than your sister." Jaune said, outstretching his hand for a handshake.

Miltia, a bit surprised at how young and admittedly good looking this guy was, took a few seconds before returning the gesture. Miltia looked back at her sister, and through a silent exchange, the white clad sister begrudgingly approached Jaune and stuck her hand out.

"Look, sorry for what I said. I'm just so used to dealing with idiots by yelling at them." Melanie said, looking away from Jaune, but keeping her hand extended.

Jaune looked a bit skeptical and irritated, but Miltia reassured him by whispering in his ear, "This is probably the best apology you'll get out of her."

As Miltia leaned back, Jaune looked between, and then smirked.

"No worries, idiot isn't the worst thing I've been called." Jaune said, giving her hand a few shakes before letting go. Now Melanie had turned her head slightly so she could actually see Jaune up close, even she had to admit that he was good looking. His blonde hair, blue eyes, and pretty boy face were all rare things to find on one person. Although his clothes weren't up to par on impressing women, he was still handsome in his own way. Melanie almost felt bad for what they were luring him into.

"Mind if we have a seat?" Miltia asked politely, standing straight up and holding her hands behind her back. She leaned forward and pushed her chest out a in a sutbly seductive manner, and Melanie followed suit. Miltia felt a bit better about using subtle seduction on an attractive guy rather than some other unappealing idiot like she's done a few times before. It was all for the profit after all.

If Jaune were any better with social behaviors, he would've at least known that this was a start of something that was too good to be true, but being the oblivious guy he was he nodded and moved to the middle of the bench to make room for the two of them.

Jaune soon found himself in a bit of a cramped position. He had a girl on both sides of him, and the two seemed fond of leaning towards him, pushing their breasts against his arms. Even though Jaune lacked space at the moment, he was oddly comfortable. It was a bit cold previously, but now with the closeness of the girls next to him he was warm.

"So what are you two girls doing out so late? Most of the people I've talked to at this hour seemed terrified to even be on the streets." Jaune asked curiously, leaning back and resting his arms on the back of the bench for additional space. This didn't exactly work in his favor because now both of the girls were laying their heads on the outside of his chest. Since he didn't have his armor on the girls weren't uncomfortable. In fact they were impressed when their heads pressed against hardened muscle. Miltia blushed slightly while Melanie thought he was just flexing to impress them. Melanie kept a close eye on his face to see if he was exerting anything, but found his expression remain the same, rotating his head every so often hoping to get an answer out of one of them.

"We just wanted to stretch our legs. Our workplace is so cramped sometimes." Miltia said with a pout, resting her hand on Jaune's knee. Jaune turned his focus on her, seeing as how she answered his question.

"So you aren't scared of what has been happening recently?" Jaune asked with mild concern for his new friends.

"Nah, we can defend ourselves from any common goon." Melanie said confidently, using one hand to play with his hair. Jaune didn't bother to stop either of the girls and their odd actions to him.

Jaune turned his head to the white clad girl and raised an eyebrow, "Oh? You two fight?" Jaune asked with a slowly widening grin plastered onto his face.

Melanie smirked at his question, "Yup, self-taught and everything." She said proudly, twirling a lock of his hair. Jaune ignored the odd mannerisms of his new companions in order to appease his newest interest.

Jaune at this point had a full on grin, "That's awesome! I'd love to see you two in action." Jaune exclaimed, before a loud rumble interrupted anything else that could have been said.

Both girls looked to the source, which happened to be the stomach of the blonde they were sitting with. Said blonde scratched his cheek softly and laughed.

"Sorry 'bout that. I haven't eaten in a while. My last meal kinda got ruined." Jaune admitted, another grumble leaving his empty gut as remembered all of the wasted food. He would be sure to destroy the next meal he saw Sun with, if he ever saw him at all after this that is.

The twin beauties shared a look with each other, a mischievous glint present in their identical eyes. They both looked up at Jaune with small smiles. It was really messing with Jaune how similar these two girls were. If they had identical clothes he wouldn't be able to tell them apart at all.

"Well here's an idea. How about we kill two birds with one stone?" Melanie began, peaking Jaune's interest.

"I'm listening." Jaune said, eyebrows raised.

"If you come with us to our workplace, we can get you some food on the house and maybe we'll let you see us in 'action.'" Miltia said, rubbing her hand up and down Jaune's thigh.

Jaune didn't catch the obvious hint, but he most certainly caught the 'food' part of it, especially when it's on the house. "No foolin'? You two would get me some food?"

Both girls couldn't help but frown at his response. They thought it should have been obvious that they were hinting at actions that didn't involve fighting, but he seemed more interested in food. No matter, they had a job to do and they would see it through. It should be easy considering that Jaune was an idiot.

"We're not kidding, don't you worry." Miltia said sweetly, standing up in sync with her sister. The twin's outstretched their arms to Jaune for him to take. Jaune clasped their hands, not wanting to seem rude to them for wanting to help him stand up. When Jaune was raised to his feet he did a few stretches. He hadn't noticed how stiff his limbs were now that he was free from the confines of the twins who sandwiched him on the bench.

"Hold up, just gotta grab my stuff." Jaune said hurriedly, kneeling down to grab his supplies. Jaune was, not surprisingly, eager to get a free meal.

Both girls watched calculatedly as Jaune tightened some light weight armor onto his body and clipped a sword within a sheath to his hip. Patting the sword on his hip twice, he turned back to the twins and grinned, "Alright, I'm good to go girls."

Miltia and Melanie scanned his equipment, which they weren't sure he had until now, with caution.

'This might be a problem. We just assumed he was some lonely guy sleeping in the park, not some weapon wielding teenager!' Melanie said, looking to her sister.

Miltia on the other hand, was looking at the brighter side of things, 'If he's an actually trained to use those weapons and we are able to convince him… We might see some more cash in our future.'

Miltia looked to her concerned sister with a confident smile, before turning back to Jaune.

"Okay let's head out then." Miltia said sweetly, walking up to Jaune and gently looping her arms around his right arm.

"Uh, why are you clinging to my arm?" Jaune asked simply. He was fine with following people, but he didn't like getting dragged to places, which he assumed she was doing.

Miltia frowned at Jaune's obliviousness, but came up with a good reason when a cool breeze swept through the park, "I'm cold, and you're the only one here with a sweatshirt to keep you warm, so I'm improvising." Miltia said, resting her head on his lower bicep.

"I can give this to you for now if you want?" Jaune asked, already reaching for the bottom of his sweatshirt, but a voice to his left stopped him along with an additional weight on his left arm.

"But what about me? It's not nice to pick favorites with twins." Melanie said, copying her sister and resting her head on Jaune's arm.

Jaune, not entirely sure what was going on, was about to comment, but his rumbling stomach interrupted him. Without thinking or a care, Jaune said, "Okay then, off to… wherever it is that you two work at."

"We work at a nightclub. In fact, you could say that we're the bouncers in a way." Melanie said as the trio began walking.

Jaune cocked an eyebrow, looking down at her, "Really? That's cool!" Jaune exclaimed, but then looked confused, "Wait, what's a nightclub?"

The girls almost face faulted when they heard that. How could any teenager not know what a nightclub was?

Before Melanie could call him an idiot again, Miltia kindly interjected, "It's basically like a party, except it happens at night, all night." Miltia informed, pressing herself closer to Jaune because it was indeed cold, and he radiated a comfortable amount of heat. The heat wasn't overbearing, rather it was a heat that lightly touched her skin.

Jaune looked to the sky in thought, "Huh, that's neat. But I've never been to a party before either." Jaune said, laughing awkwardly.

Both girls looked at him in disbelief.

"Are you serious?" The girls asked in perfect sync.

Not sure which girl to turn to for his reply, he simply looked straight forward. "Yup, I've only moved into the city a few years ago and I spent my time training mostly. Didn't really have friends of my own until I got into Beacon." Jaune said, admiring his surroundings as they continued to walk. He hadn't really taken the time to notice, but the city actually looked pretty during the night.

To their credit, both of the girls held good poker faces and stayed at their same walking pace towards the nightclub, but on the inside it was a different matter.

'A hunter! There's no way he'd want to work for us!' Melanie mentally raged, but then a thought came to her, 'Although young hunters tend to be easier to convince… This may work.'

Miltia had similar thoughts, but they were at a different angle, 'I can't even imagine just how much cash we could earn off of this guy! If he's even remotely well trained he'll bring us in even more profit than selling the suited idiots off to Roman.'

"Well you'll enjoy this party, don't you worry." Melanie turned her confident smirk to Jaune, who smiled in reply.

"I'm sure I will." Jaune replied. He was actually feeling excited with the way these girls were hyping this nightclub up.

So now both girls held confident smiles as they led Jaune closer and closer to the nightclub. As they went into the more downtown and popular part of Vale, Jaune noticed that there were a lot more people walking around at this time. He also noticed that the gazes of the men lingered on him and his company for longer than he was comfortable with. Their eyes held something akin to anger, but it was more subdued. Some of the ladies scoffed in disgust at what they assumed was a display of prostitution. It's not like it's every night that you see two twins hanging off of one guy.

After another minute of walking, Jaune was able to pick up the sound of the loud bass of some techno style music. The closer the three got, the clearer the music was for him to hear. He never got into music with his free time. He just thought of it as more noise, but he had to admit this kind of music gave him a sort of electric energy. It made him think that if he were to listen to music like this while fighting, he'd kick even more ass than he normally does!

"We're here." The twins announced, leading their charge through the doors. The current bouncer didn't even look twice when he saw both of the girls, nor did he care that they were bringing someone in with them. This sort of thing was almost routine at this point.

Jaune's acute senses were assaulted all at once. It was much warmer in here, and the smell was a mixture of deodorant, perfume, sweat, and something he didn't quite recognize, but it was a very strong and slightly burning scent. Jaune wanted to cover his sensitive ears from the annoyingly loud music. It was so much better listening to it from the outside of the nightclub. The room was mostly black and white, with hints of red, but what irritated him were the random colored lights that flashed all around the room, one of which shone right in his face for a second.

Jaune turned to the two girls, and neither of them seemed affected by these new changes.

'They must be used to it.' Jaune thought.

The girls did not release their holds on him until they reached the bar. The trio took bar seats, and while Melanie was trying to get the attention of the bar keeper, Miltia decided to find out more about Jaune.

"So where did you grow up? You saw you moved into Vale only a few years ago." Miltia asked, resting her head in her hand that was probed up by her elbow on the countertop.

"I lived in the woods when I was younger. I was just a drifter until I was taken in by… a really nice couple." Jaune covered, remembering what Ozpin told him about stating his direct affiliation with him.

"Oh? That's nice. I couldn't imagine living in the woods for that long, especially if I were that young. My sister and I both grew up in the city, and haven't really gone anywhere since then." Miltia said, letting her eyes roam the room to see just how many people had turned out tonight.

Jaune was thankful that the music was a bit quieter by the bar, or he would be having a tougher time trying to hear what Miltia was saying than he already was. Before he could say anything more, a large plate of gourmet-looking food was placed in front of him with a loud clank.

"It's on the house." The black and red suited barkeeper said gruffly before turning to attend to more customers.

Jaune looked at the barkeeper's attire, and felt himself become slightly angry for some reason. 'Where have I seen that outfit before?' Jaune thought, but shook himself out of his thoughts as he looked back at his food.

"Whoa, this stuff looks great!" Jaune shouted happily and throwing his fists into the air, causing Miltia to giggle.

Melanie smirked at his over-the-top reaction, "Well this place is primarily a nightclub, but we also serve pretty decent food here, so eat up. Like that guy said, it's on the house."

Jaune gave her an excited 'Really?!' look before grabbing the silverware that came with his meal and prepared to dig in, but remembered something that Glynda had told him once during a social etiquette session. That had been one of the most terrifying moments of his life.

_"Jaune, if you happen to find yourself in the company of women, you need to not eat like a starved cannibal." Glynda said sternly._

_Jaune tilted his head in confusion, "Why should it matter how I eat?" He asked. Why should it matter how he eats? As long as food gets into his mouth everything was fine, right?_

_Glynda glared at Jaune that made him shiver in slight fear. Her eyes hinted of pain that would be brought his way if he did not obey, "You will eat with manners if you find yourself in the company of females, am I clear?"_

_Jaune was quick to salute her, "Y-yes ma'am!"_

"_Good, we shall practice now. You are not leaving this room until you get this right."_

Jaune cringed a bit at the memory. Needless to say he was there a while, and had sported several red marks on his hands afterwards. He would do anything to avoid the wrath of Glynda, even if there was no way for her no know that he was about to eat like a man who had recently disbanded from a hunger strike. This was now making him reevaluate how he should have been eating around team RWBY and the two female members of his team.

'I'm taking no chances from now on!' Jaune mentally shouted as he slowly cut up a piece of meat, he thought it was steak, and calmly placed it in his awaiting mouth.

Both girls looked at Jaune expectantly, 'Well?" They both asked.

Jaune chewed a few times, letting the taste settle on his tongue, before swallowing and smiling contently. "This is great!" Jaune said joyfully, cutting another piece and chewing it.

As Jaune moaned at the taste of his food, he noticed that Melanie had gotten the attention of the bartender once more, this time ordering something for herself and her sister. He didn't recognize the names, so he assumed that they were specials or something.

To his confusion, the bartender returned with two drinks of identical color in his hands. The color of the drinks was red that faded more as the color reached the top of the glass. Both drinks had a lime wedge on the rims.

"What is that?" Jaune pointed to both of the drinks as the bartender set them down and walked away.

"It's called a Razz-Jito, do you wanna try it?" Melanie asked, offering her glass to Jaune.

Jaune , always eager to try new things, took the glass of red liquid from Melanie's hands and took a testing sip. It was sweet, that much was obvious, but there was a strange burn that lingered in his throat after he swallowed the drink. It was like drinking a liquefied form of those candies that initially taste good, but then realize that it's cinnamon flavored.

"What the hell is in this, hot sauce?" Jaune asked, coughing slightly as he handed the drink back to its owner, who proceeded to take a large sip of it and let out a satisfied sigh.

"The good stuff, that's what's in here." Melanie said, spinning her glass so the liquid and ice cubes inside spun in a circle. "Don't tell me you've never gotten in your daddy's stash of alcohol?"

Jaune shifted uncomfortably at the mention of his father, but remembered that the only family he had told them about was a nice couple, and that was all, "Can't say I have. I don't think I've ever had alcohol before. Can't say I like it too much."

Hearing this, Melanie waved the bartender over once more, who looked annoyed at having to run back and force constantly, but didn't voice his annoyance in fear of pissing of one of the Malachite twins.

"What'd ya need miss?" He asked, hoping the respectful tone in his voice didn't sound forced. He really didn't want to be on the receiving end of the woman's heel blades. He had seen what happened to the last guy who annoyed her into using her deadly weapons.

"Get my friend here something light. It's his first time." Melanie said, patting Jaune's chest plate.

"Coming right up." He said before turning to mix a drink together.

Jaune was now confused, "What did you just order for me?"

Melanie smiled sweetly at him and took another sip of her drink, "I ordered you something to drink. Is that so wrong?"

Jaune shook his head, "No, but if it's anything like what you're drinking, then I probably won't like it anyways."

Melanie patted his head, like a mother would to a child, "Poor, innocent Jaune. We don't drink alcohol for its taste. We drink it for its effects." Melanie giggled as she withdrew her hand after one final, prolonged stroke of his chest armor and took another sip of her beverage.

'He's almost too innocent to try to convert, but that's what makes this more fun.' Melanie thought challengingly.

The bartender returned with Jaune's drink in hand, and placed it in front of the blonde.

Jaune took a moment to examine this one. It was, strangely enough, a pretty blue color. The color almost matched his eye color. Jaune sniffed the drink and almost flinched when he felt his nose start to burn.

"What is this?" Jaune said while rubbing his nose.

Miltia, no longer wanting to be silent, decided to answer, "It's Blue-Raspberry Vodka. Drink up. This one is a bit easier to put down."

Jaune stared at her skeptically, but eventually found the glass in his hand. It seems that his curiosity got the best of him once more.

"You say you drink it for its effects, right? What would those effects be?" Jaune asked curiously.

"You become calmer and looser. You lose some of your pesky inhibitions that you might possess. So you pretty much feel great the entire time. Just don't drink too much unless you want to not remember anything and get sick." Melanie said, downing the last of her drink, Miltia following her.

Jaune didn't bother with tasting the beverage, if he was just trying to go for the effect then he should just get it over with. Jaune took a deep breath and chugged down his beverage.

Jaune quickly drank the entire glass of vodka with little difficulty. He expected a large burn to follow, but only a mild irritation was all he felt in the back of his throat.

"Huh, that wasn't too bad actually." Jaune said with a smile, turning his head to both girls to see their reactions.

Miltia seemed happy while Melanie smirked.

"That was only light stuff compared to what we serve here. You'll have to drink something stronger if you want to impress us." Melanie challenged, leaning forward to Jaune.

Jaune returned her smirk with a smirk of his own, "You're on Mel!" He declared, slamming his hand onto the table.

Only slightly surprised at the new nickname he gave her, Melanie waved the bartender down once more, who this time wasn't currently busy serving someone else.

"Yes?" He asked, pushing up his red sunglasses.

"Give us the Under-The-Table challenge. We got a tough guy right here." Melanie said, thrusting her thumb towards Jaune.

Jaune laughed confidently and punched his fist into the air, "Hell yeah! I'll take whatever you throw at me!"

The bartender didn't bother asking why a first time drinker would want to try 'that' challenge, but didn't question it. He just turned away to fetch the challenge beverage.

Jaune took this opportunity to observe his surroundings. This place must be fairly popular if there were this many people here on a weekday, but he also noticed a bunch of guys in black and red suits scattered around the room. The suits were familiar, but he just couldn't place them anywhere.

'I'm sure It'll come to me.' Jaune assured himself. An audible clearing of a throat alerted Jaune of another presence close by.

"Miltiades, Melanie, who is this guy?" A deep and authoritative voice asked from behind Jaune.

Jaune spun his chair to meet this newcomer, and was his first observation about this guy was that he was tall, slightly taller than himself, and much wider.

He had short-trimmed black hair and a neatly trimmed beard. His attire was different than the other workers of the nightclub. He had a white button down shirt with a black vest and a red tie. He also had black comfortable-looking pants and expensive looking shoes. On his face was another pair of red sunglasses, not unlike what every other worker in this place had, sans the twins.

The twins each took ahold of his arms and smiled.

"He's Jaune Arc, our new friend." They both said teasingly, leaving Jaune under the scrutinizing glare of the large man. While Jaune wasn't one to be easily intimidated, but this man held an aura that demanded authority, not that Jaune would respect it willingly of course. The only authority he respected was Ozpin and Glynda.

"Sup, old man." Jaune greeted with a two finger salute.

Due to the red sunglasses, Jaune couldn't see the twitch of the man's eye at the inadvertent insult, but if the twins were planning what he thought they were planning, he'd have to tolerate it… for now. It did unnerve him that the blonde kid had a weapon on his hip though.

The twins waited patiently for their boss's reaction. Mostly because anyone who insulted him in any way got kicked out of the club harshly, or something worse. To their surprise and amusement, the large man took a deep breath and forced a smile to Jaune.

"The name's Junior, that's all you're going to call me. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a club to manage." Junior said gruffly, practically stomping away muttering something about beating up annoying blondes with a bat. Jaune ignored it in favor of the large bottle and two small glasses that appeared in front of him and Melanie.

"Whoa, I can smell it from here!" Jaune complained, squeezing his nose shut and cursing his superhuman senses. It felt like the hairs of his nose had just been fried. The twins laughed at his seemlingly overdramatic reaction.

"This'll be an easy win then, if you can't even handle the smell you won't be able to tolerate the taste." Melanie taunted, filling up her shot glass with the brown liquid.

Jaune's head snapped in her direction, a challenging smirk on his face, "You wish. I don't lose, and that's final!" Jaune declared loudly, holding his glass so Melanie could pour the liquor into it without having much of a problem.

With both glasses filled to the near brim, the two combatants held their glasses to their mouths. Neither backing down and the only other spectator watching intently.

"Bottoms up!" Melanie shouted before swallowing the contents of her glass easily. Jaune followed suit, but being the inexperienced drinker that he was accidently drank the shot glass in two sips. This forced him to taste the contents of his glass more than he would have if he downed his shot glass in one go.

Attempting to save face, Jaune forced a shaky grin and looked at his opponent. "That's not so bad." Jaune claimed, before breaking into another coughing fit. Jaune shook his head quickly and held his glass once again, ready for the next round.

Melanie was all too eager to refill their glasses.

"Try and drink it all at once. Trust me it's easier than what you just did." Melanie advised, before swallowing the burning liquid in her glass. Jaune took her advice and swallowed the shot in one go. It turns out she was right.

This process repeated multiple times, both drinkers becoming more sluggish as the minutes passed. Melanie and Miltiades were honestly surprised that Jaune hadn't thrown up yet. Jaune himself was having a great time. Everything felt so… intriguing and fun! Jaune swayed slightly in his chair as the effects of the alcohol began to take him in full force.

Jaune watched with drunken interest as the glasses were filled again, albeit at a much slower rate. For some reason, very little things became fascinating for him, but they also became much more difficult to focus on. He concentrated on Melanie's face, but his eyes would drift elsewhere until he realized that he wasn't looking at his intended target.

Jaune looked to his left to Miltia, and then to his right to Melanie, and then gently placed his head on the counter and groaned lowly. This was really difficult!

Miltia, who hadn't been drinking and was merely the silent observer the whole time, looked to Jaune with amusement in her eyes and a smile on her lips.

"Something wrong, Jaune?" She asked innocently, leaning close so she could hear what he would say in case he mumbled out his words.

Jaune slowly raised his head to look at her, but his eyes trailed away from her own from time to time. "It was already hard enough to focus on the two of you, but now there are FOUR of you!" Jaune exclaimed sluggishly, throwing his hands up in the air in annoyance. He almost fell out of his chair in the process. If Miltia hadn't caught him in time, he would've taken a rough tumble.

Jaune laughed loudly, and then laid his head and chest on the bar with a goofy grin on his face. Melanie went into a loud giggling fit at seeing Jaune being clumsy, but Miltia shook Jaune to get his attention once again.

"Hey Jaune, I have a question for you." She asked.

"Wah." Jaune replied, turning his head to her with a slightly agape jaw.

"How do you like this club so far?" Miltia asked, reaching over to Jaune to rub his left shoulder.

Jaune laughed while scratching the back of his head, "Is' pretty fun!" Jaune replied, feeling a tap on his other shoulder, he saw Melanie had refilled his glass once more. Jaune happily took the glass, but spilt a little bit on his hands in the process, and downed the liquid inside.

Miltia had him buttered up now, in a sense. This was the time to go in for the kill. It was now or never.

"Well," Miltia said, regaining his attention once more, "Why don't you work here? We could hang out like this every night, plus with some added benefits that I know you'll love." Miltia offered, putting emphasis on the work 'benefits.'

Jaune raised his head and placed one hand under his chin and scrunched up his face, almost like he was expressing extreme thought. After a full minute, Jaune shook his head. "Sowwy, I gots other stuff I gotta do. Can't really do those things workin' here." Jaune said with multiple slurs.

Both of the twins looked at Jaune with disappointment. They were really hoping he would work with and for them, but he wasn't as easy to convince as other goons. He actually had obligations to keep, unlike the other idiots that were scattered around the bar.

"Unfortunately we don't like taking no for an answer." Miltia said with an almost unnoticeable malice. Jaune was too intoxicated to see the subtle danger in her words, as well as the slight movement from Miltia's hands that were under the bar. Jaune did however hear a 'click' before Miltia moved to retract her arm from underneath the bar.

More words would have been said between the three, but they were interrupted when an overzealous dancer stumbled out of the large mosh pit of dancers and rammed their elbow into the back of Jaune's head. Jaune's face slammed into the counter hard, but thanks to his drunken state it hadn't hurt. Unfortunately, it did piss him off.

"Hey, what the hell are ya doin' ya jackass!" Jaune spat out as he stood on his unstable legs, wobbling to and fro. The man looked to Jaune and saw that he had clearly been drinking, so he tried to simply back off. It wasn't a good idea to deal with drunks.

"Sorry about that dude I-," The man said, but was abruptly cut off when a forehead slammed into his nose and sent him back several feet, unconscious.

Jaune leaned his body back up until his back was arched, but was now bent at an uncomfortable looking angle, "Thas wright, you betta run bitch!" Jaune hollered, pointing in the direction of his 'attacker.'

Melanie made no move to stop Jaune due to her drunken state, but Miltia had already stood up and was about to attack Jaune from behind to subdue him when Jaune's attention was drawn by another source.

"We're going to have to ask you to leave." A suited man said, getting so close to Jaune in an attempt to intimidate the blonde into leaving. This had quite the opposite effect however.

"I ain't leavin'! I'm just startin' to have fun!" Jaune declared with a large, goofy smile. He was having the time of his life! He hardly ever got the chance to really cut loose, and he felt like he had the ability to do anything without any restrictions.

"That's not an option." The man replied seriously, reaching his hand into his cheap suit and gripping the handle of the hidden red machete that lay underneath.

Jaune was now irritated that this guy was trying to ruin his night, so he reacted in the only way his tipsy brain knew how.

He punched the man, very hard.

To onlookers it appeared as though Jaune threw his entire weight into the punch, which wasn't far from the truth. When the fist connected to the man's jaw, the man flew backward while spinning at nauseating speeds. Jaune stumbled forward when he overextended his arm, but held firm. As firm as a drunk could.

"Who's next?" Jaune challenged loudly, pumping his fists into the air with excitement. His blood was pumping now!

As if to answer his call, Jaune found himself surrounded by men in black and red suits. There were only slight differences between them, but one stuck out more than anything. One was a girl, in a red dress, with sharp looking claws on her arms.

"Miltia? When did you turn into a crab?" Jaune asked as he pointed at the girl in question, swaying side to side but not falling down.

None of the goons dared to laugh. They knew that the girl was already annoyed that she had failed to convert her newest catch to join them, and they had more important things to focus on.

"Jaune, this is your last chance. Join us and we'll forget the damage you've already done. I really don't want to hurt you if I don't have to." Miltia requested. She wasn't about to beg, she wasn't that low, but she did want Jaune to join the club. Pun intended. Not only would Jaune make a good worker, but it would be nice to have someone else to talk to that wasn't her sister or another idiot goon.

"Will ya fight me if I don't join?" Jaune asked curiously. Unknown to the girl in red Jaune was getting pumped up for the fight he was promised earlier.

Miltia nodded, and the goons readied their various weapons.

"Then I'm not joining! I wanna see how ya fight!" Jaune declared, grinning like an eager fool. He did want to see how the twins fought, even if he only saw one within the crowd before him. And those suits had been pissing him off all night, it was time for some payback!

Miltia's eyed widened, but her hands were tied. Since Jaune wasn't going to join, he would have to leave before he caused more damage.

"Attack." Miltia commanded, pointing one of her claws at the unstable Dragon Slayer.

And with that, the chaos began.

One overly cocky goon rushed Jaune before the others could even step forward. The goon raised his red machete over his head and swung down hard with a massive grin on his face.

Only for the grin to fall immediately as Jaune lazily sidestepped out of the way of the attack and stuck him in the ribs with a backhand. Normal Jaune had very little restraint as it was, but this drunken Jaune had absolutely none. When the fist connected, even the crowd was able to hear a sickening 'crack' of the cocky man's ribs as he sailed past over their heads and into a nearby pillar.

The grunt crumpled to the ground faster than a sack of potatoes. This didn't put off the other goons from attacking as much as it should have. Most of them reasoned that Jaune had only taken out one guy so far, excluding the other people he had already knocked out.

Jaune attempted to focus as several black blurs rushed towards him. Jaune moved his body in odd and unpredictable ways to dodge incoming attacks, and he wasn't even aware of it. His body seemed to move on its own.

Jaune leaned back as three blades slashed at his torso. Each blade missed by about an inch. Jaune leaned back until he was balanced on his hands, and kicked off the ground so he was doing a handstand. Jaune then did a horizontal air split and kicked one goon with each foot, sending them back with a surprising amount of force.

Jaune was far from over with his strange new fighting style. Jaune twisted so he was facing another grunt and moved his legs so his knees were bend and his feet were pointed towards the goon.

His feet became a blur as they rapidly kicked the man several times. With one final kick, Jaune gripped the man's head with his feet and swung his legs so that the man's head crashed into the ground and Jaune was lying on his back.

Not wanting to slow down and give his opponents the advantage, Jaune propped himself on his hands and feet in a crab walk position. Dodging a hatchet that landed near his head, Jaune threw his body back up and used the momentum to throw a powerful punch at his assaulter. The punch landed squarely in the man's face and just like the rest he went down fast.

Jaune felt several pricks on his back. Slightly irritated he turned his head in the direction of the attack as he still felt the small pinches touch his skin. It turned out to be the DJ, who was up in his booth with a Thompson-like machine gun and a stuffed bear head covering his neck up.

Thankfully Jaune's aura kept him protected from the bullets themselves, but the force behind them still affected Jaune. Jaune's anger flared as he realized that this man was being a coward and not fighting him on the ground.

"Get down here an' fight me like a man!" Jaune demanded as he threw his head back. He stumbled back a few feet, but eventually caught himself and took a deep breath. The surrounding grunts watched in shock and horror as Jaune began to glow an ominous white color. The DJ took this moment to reload his gun before Jaune could do anything, but it was already too late, or so he thought.

"White Dragon's Holy-!" Jaune began, but suddenly clutched his stomach and leaned forward. His cheeks puffed up and his face turned slightly pale.

"Oh god…" Jaune moaned, right before he began to throw up the mean he had eaten not even two hours ago. Two grunts saw this as an opening and charged at Jaune. When they were within slashing distance, both goons raised their weapons up and went to slash at Jaune.

Either by extreme luck or drunken instinct, Jaune stumbled out of the way of the blades. The goons, having put all of their strength into their swings, also stumbled. Unfortunately they stumbled forward and at fast speeds right into the pile of brownish vomit. Their shoes slid across the thick, grotesque surface of the vomit which built up even more momentum and they crashed into the bar, unconscious and slightly covered in the vile substance. Melanie, who was seated nearby, laughed loudly and dumped her drink on one of their heads, staining his suit even more.

Jaune spit the residue vomit out of his mouth and took another deep breath. He repeated this process with hopes that he wouldn't vomit again. Deeming himself good to go, Jaune looked back at the DJ, who had his gun aimed at Jaune, and smirked.

"As I was sayin'… White Dragon's Holy Breath!" Jaune shouted, the glow returning onto his body and a large beam on light leaving his mouth. The beam traveled at rapid speeds, but an almost safe distance away from the DJ. It seemed that while Jaune could still fight close quarters, his aim was still way off.

But it wasn't like he needed to be right on target with that attack, right?

The beam hit the wall about seven feet away from the DJ. Before the DJ could even sigh in relief, the beam condensed and proceeded to explode. The radius covered the DJ's booth, and inevitably him. The goons and even Miltia watched in terror as the DJ fell to the ground. Surprisingly alive, but badly injured.

"Did I get 'im?" Jaune asked, turning his head back to Miltia.

The girl in red couldn't even believe it. Like really, what had even just happened! The drunken blonde in front of her just shot an exploding laser beam form his mouth! That was just a ridiculous semblance.

Even with that display of power, it was obvious that he needed a few second to charge it in his drunken state, so if attacks were constantly thrown at him he wouldn't be able to do those lasers again. All she had to do was beat him, and despite what she had seen already it shouldn't be too hard. The goons really weren't a good indicator of someone's strength. She had speed and power, and from what she had seen all he had was power. Even if her sister was too intoxicated to do anything, Miltia could manage without her.

The remaining five goons weren't nearly as confident as their female comrade. They had seen what had happened to the others that had thrown themselves at Jaune, and they weren't about to be added to that pile of bodies. So they did the only thing they knew how to do besides swing a sword and steal candy from children.

They ran.

Even as Miltia shouted at them and threated to kill them herself they didn't stop moving. None of them wanted to face the dragon that challenged them. Let someone who actually knew how to sue their weapon deal with that crap.

"Whatever, I can do this on my own." Miltia said, waling cautiously up to Jaune. Jaune was staring at the slowly approaching girl with growing anticipation. He was finally going to get the fight he had come here for!

"Wheneva you're ready Mi… Mit… Mil…" Jaune tried, but failed to remember her name. He tapped his chin in thought, but still couldn't recall her name.

"Miltia." The claw user said plainly as she was within five feet of Jaune.

"Ah! Thas right, Miltia! It's a good thing I remembered." Jaune said, punching a fist into an open palm and laughing loudly. Miltia scowled, but didn't argue as she raised her arms in a ready position. Jaune eagerly followed suit, but suddenly found a fascination with his fingerless gloves.

Without the DJ and his booth, the music had ended, leaving the two fighters in silence. The only noises being the groans of unconscious goons and the mumblings of Jaune.

Miltia decided to try her luck at attacking the seemingly unready Jaune. She took two quick steps and slashed at Jaune with a downwards arc. Jaune noticed this last minute, and with a surprised shriek stumbled back. He could've sworn he had seen a few of his hairs cut off there.

Miltia did not stop her assault. She swung at Jaune with arcs from various directions. To her dismay and growing annoyance he dodged each one somehow. His movements became unpredictable and odd, bending his body at uncomfortable angles to avoid one swing, and suddenly standing right back up to avoid the follow up swing.

Eventually Jaune attacked back. Miltia stabbed forward, aiming at Jaune's head, but missed when he tilted his head just enough to avoid the fatal attack. Before she could retract her claw, Jaune head butted her. Miltia shrieked and clutched her aching head. Her aura had protected her from some of the force, but that was the terrifying thing. If her aura absorbed some of the force, then how hard did she just get hit!

Ignoring this and her headache, she charged again at Jaune. She stopped in her tracks, however, when she saw Jaune on the floor with his eyes closed and his breathing even.

Miltia just stared, dumbfounded that this happened within seconds of her getting struck. Not one to miss a chance of attack, she quickly made her way over to him and raised a clawed arm upwards. With unwavering resolution she stabbed downwards at his head.

And her claw was imbedded into the ground.

She was sure she couldn't have missed a target at this range and unmoving, so what had happened? She turned her gaze to the blonde once again, and found him lying on his side still sleeping peacefully.

Miltia growled, but didn't let this get to her too much. She stood over Jaune once again, and raised her claw once more. She stabbed downwards once again, intending to end her target.

And just like last time, she missed by mere inches.

She stared in disbelief as Jaune had, within a millisecond, rolled over to his opposite side to unconsciously avoid the attack.

Now thoroughly annoyed, Miltia began stabbing at Jaune. Each claw intending to end his life by headshot.

Each stab missed by a hair each and every time.

Somehow Jaune was dodging in his sleep, and at such a rapid speed as well. Miltia frustration grew until she finally made to slash at his chest.

Unconsciously Jaune did a reverse crunch and brought his feet above his head. The blade struck the ground just under his buttocks.

Miltia, still bent over and looking at the ground where she had just slashed, didn't notice Jaune's feet coming back down to the earth. She didn't have any time to move as both of the feet landed on the back of her head and slammed her face into the ground. The sudden and powerful blow took her completely by surprise and she lost consciousness soon after.

After a few seconds, Jaune opened his eyes and rolled to his side. As if he was performing a step by step process Jaune slowly got to his feet. First by planting his palms against the ground, second by pushing himself up, and third by sliding his feet underneath himself and pushed his sluggish body up.

Jaune took a few seconds to scan his surroundings. He wasn't sober yet, not even close, but he could still appreciate the chaos he had caused. There were various bodies all over the place, one of which was at his feet. Not bothering to see who it was, Jaune made his way to the exit. Jaune waved goodbye to Melanie, who waved back awkwardly and rested her head on the bar.

Jaune was only a couple of feet from the bar when he heard a booming voice pound into his ears.

"Don't think you can leave after what you've done! I swear I'm going to enforce a 'no blondes' policy once this crap is over!" Shouted Junior as he hoisted a red rocket launcher onto his shoulder. Junior was stood on the second floor, completely overlooking the destruction that had befell his bar. Someone was going to pay, and it was going to be the one that caused it. Maybe the goons as well just for the hell of it.

Jaune barely had any time to react as several rockets were fired at him at once. The only thing he could do was cover his face with his arms. Each rocket connected with his body and pushed him into a nearby wall and even further into the wall itself, imbedding him inside of it.

Junior waited impatiently as the smoke began to dissipate, and when it did he saw Jaune pull himself out of the vertical crater and dust himself off. Jaune looked up at Junior and grinned a grin that just screamed 'bad move.'

"I can do somethin' like dat too!" Jaune shouted, excitedly bringing his hands to his waist, twisting his torso and touching his wrists together in preparation for his next attack.

Now what came next happened in two different ways. One of these ways being in Jaune's mind.

In Jaune's mind, he had exclaimed confidently, "The light of the White Dragon purifies all!" and followed up with, "White Dragon's Holy Ray!" What followed was the total dissipation of the building and its inhabitants. Truly it was an epic moment, and one Jaune would not soon forget.

In reality it was different.

Jaune charged up his attack, the orb trapped in his hands increasing in size by the second. Before he shouted the name of his attack as per tradition, he shouted something else. Something far less elegant and poetic than what was in his head.

"Imma blind a bitch!" Jaune shouted with a mad cackle, shoving his hands forward and spreading out his arms to give his attack room to fully expand. "White Dragon's Holy Ray!" Jaune shouted, firing off multiple rays of powerful light at his opponent.

In his haste, Junior fired off more rockets in an attempt to stop the incoming light barrage. Unfortunately for him, he had only six rockets in his clip, and the ones that connected with their targets were quickly snuffed out and overtaken by the superior attack.

Junior and his establishment felt the impact of the powerful attack, and both crumbled under the sheer force of the light salvo.

Jaune watched as the building slowly caved in around him, and within a few minutes he was back under the stars. Jaune, thoroughly satisfied with how his day had ended, stumbled out of the rubble, ignoring the people that stared at him with wide eyes and jaws agape.

Jaune didn't know exactly how it happened, but he managed to find his way back to the park where the twins had found him. He even managed to find the same bench he was sat upon hours before the events at the bar had taken place.

So just to recap Jaune's day…

Went to Vale with friends, but not his team and was forced to carry multiple bags and go into boring clothing stores.

Got into a fun fist fight with a monkey faunus, but said faunus had ruined his meal and inadvertently left him broke and with nothing to show for it.

Made a friend with the faunus, but missed his flight back to Vale.

Found a nice park, but was insulted by look alikes.

Look alikes turn out to be pretty fun people and lead him back to a club where he was able to eat. The club had loud music and he didn't like the suits. He still didn't know why they bothered him, but whatever.

Got to fight goons and one of the look alikes. Wasn't able to fight both look alikes at once like he wanted.

Got shot, shot back with interest.

Got salvoed, salvoed back with massive interest.

Found park where he was in originally…

So far nothing bad has happened after that.

Unfortunately for him, a hangover was going to squeeze its way right into the con section of his 'stuff accomplished' list.

But now wasn't the time. Now was the time for Jaune to sleep, which he eagerly accepted.

**Drunk dialogue is hard.**

**Sorry for not updating in forever. School and crap. And sorry for those who were expecting the re-write for my other story, Master-of-Arms, to be up. I'm working on it, but I want it to be as perfect as possible so I'm taking time with it. **

**Also this is the longest chapter I've ever written, and there are probably some grammatical mistakes near the end.**

**This started as a joke, and now it's a chapter and new fighting style that may or may not be touched on in the future. Can you guess where I got it from? Probably.**


	22. The Next Day

**It's been a while. Certainly not as long as some of my other stories, but yeah.**

**I've been busy as of late. Combine that with being lazy as hell I find it hard to get any writing done for any stories. Im close to finishing a new chapter for Blessings if any of you know about that story. I'm not gonna do responses on this chapter just because I don't want to look at this document anymore.**

Early mornings in any park can usually be classified as peaceful and relaxing. A nice jog through a park at such a time is always a great way to start any morning. It gives your body time to wake up fully, and remove any amount of sleepiness from your body.

However, on this particular Saturday morning, nearby joggers and pedestrians were greeted with a sight of a sickly looking teen hunched over a trash bin and spewing up a foul substance from his mouth.

This teen was Jaune Arc, experiencing his first hangover.

Upon waking up, Jaune covered his hooded eyes from the piercing light of the sun. There was never a day before today that he hated the sun. He loved to bask in its warmth when he had the chance, but right now he wanted the solar mass to just implode and become nothing, and maybe even take him with it.

The next thing he experienced was a sudden and painful headache, which was quickly followed by extreme nausea. Almost like a blur, Jaune leapt up from his bench and found the first trash can he could. He practically threw himself into the opening. Thankfully, the trash can lid was not wide enough for more than his head to fit into, or else he would've been in an even bigger mess.

As soon as Jaune opened his mouth, he vomited up a disgustingly dark substance along with several chunks. After several bouts of vomit, Jaune leaned heavily onto the trash bin, not caring if it fell over. He needed to breathe after nearly throwing up his own stomach.

"Never… again…" Jaune grumbled between raspy breaths. Jaune remained like this for quite a few minutes, waiting for any more bile to rise from within his insides. During the wait, Jaune clutched his head and winced as his headache made itself known once again. Now no longer distracted by vomiting, Jaune could clearly feel each and every sharp wave of pain. The sound of chirping birds and rustling trees began to irritate him more than normal. Even when applying aura to his aching cranium, the pain didn't cease.

After assuming that his stomach had calmed down for now, he scanned his surroundings for his next priority, water.

Fortunately, he was in a public park, which had water fountains scattered about. Finally spotting one not too far from him, Jaune removed himself from the trash bin and wiped his mouth. Flicking away the residue with a scowl he made his way to the fountain at a rapid pace.

Once Jaune reached the fountain, he pressed the dispensing button with far more force than necessary, desperate to get the life-saving liquid inside. The water came out in a smooth arc, but none of it reached the other side due to Jaune greedily inhaling the water like a fish out of water.

A full minute passed as Jaune drank and splashed water into his face to wash away the sleep and dull his headache. Finally satisfied that he had done the best he could, Jaune looked down to inspect himself.

His armor had multiple stains, some of which were due to being near the splash zone of the vomit he spewed out minutes ago. His sweat shirt showed no such stains, but he couldn't really tell since it was black. Black hid stains very well. His pants were just as dirty as he expected them to be. None of the stains were out of the ordinary. His shoes were in a similar state, also being black. Although the white parts of his shoes did have a bit of red on them, weird.

Wiping his wet hands on his armor, Jaune tried to make the white plates shine once more. Thankfully, the smooth material was easy to clean. To be honest none of his things really needed much maintenance. His shield never dented, his sword never dulled, and his clothes were easy to clean and sew if necessary.

Now that his headache dulled down to only a mild pain, Jaune was ready to set out again, not caring about the observers that witnessed the whole spectacle. He didn't need nor did he care about the attention right now. He needed to get back to Beacon and get himself cleaned out.

Remembering that he had a scroll, Jaune reached into his back pocket and pulled out the compact device. Expanding it to its full size, Jaune powered the device and saw that it was nearly one P.M. He was completely astounded by just how long he had slept, but even more so when he saw the amount of messages he had received.

He should've expected as much, but it still shocked him that he had so many. After all he only sent a short message to the people he knew. He didn't bother to know how they would react or respond.

"_Be safe, don't do anything that I'll need to pay for." –Ozpin_

Jaune couldn't help but laugh at that message. When Ozpin had first taken him into Vale, Jaune had gotten riled up because someone was picking on a faunus. Ozpin hadn't taken into account just how fast such a thing would set Jaune off. Before Ozpin could even interfere, Jaune had thrown the racist through the window of a nearby store. Ozpin told the owner of the store that he would pay, and added the payments to Beacon's bill. Needless to say Glynda was not happy. Didn't stop Jaune from breaking things after that though.

"_Get back safe, your team worries you know." –Pyrrha_

Jaune definitely expected this one. Ever since he had been on a team, his partner had practically elected herself as the pseudo mother of JNPR. Not that he or anyone else would admit it. It took quite a bit to keep Nora and himself in line. While Nora had Ren to control her, Jaune had Pyrrha. Once again, this didn't stop him from doing the things that he does.

The next two messages were from the same person, Ruby.

"_I'm REALLY sorry we left you behind :'( Weiss and Blake are having an… argument and we got dragged along." –Ruby_

Once again, not surprising. He already knew of this argument from Ruby, who sent him the message the day before. He was still peeved that he got left behind because of a simple argument, not that he knew better.

The next message, however, blew every other one out of the water with the amount of shock he felt afterwards.

"_Jaune this is important! If you are still in Vale stay there! Blake ran away and we don't know where she went. We are trying to find her, but we can only cover so much ground. PLZ HELP!" –Ruby_

Well… that was unexpected.

Not even needing to consider, Jaune rapidly typed into his scroll, sending a return message to Ruby. Thank goodness that his scroll had spell check, because with the speed that he was typing at absolutely killed his accuracy. Not to mention he was still a tad woozy.

"_I'm on it, there's nobody in Vale that I can't find!" –Jaune_

Jaune sent the message and quickly shoved his scroll back into his back pocket. Taking a large inhale of air through his nose, Jaune tried to focus in on the specific scent of Blake. It took him several minutes and multiple inhales to sort through the numerous scents of the city, but eventually he found and locked onto Blake's scent. Strangely enough there was another scent within close proximity to her, and it was definitely a familiar one.

"Looks like monkey boy found her too," Jaune said with a grin, "I'm gonna make him pay for my next meal, that guy still owes me."

* * *

As it turned out, finding people by their scent while sporting a wicked hangover was much harder than Jaune had originally thought. Not only were the effects of his hangover horrendously distracting, his sense of smell was thrown out of whack. Sure, he could pick up Blake's scent easily, but he couldn't stay focused on it for more than five minutes.

To sum it up, Jaune knew he was somewhere within a few miles of Blake and Sun, but beyond that he couldn't pinpoint their exact location. Fortunately he was managing to get closer to the two, and with a few more attempts he was positive that he could finally find them and put an end to this ordeal.

"There!" Jaune exclaimed, as he was finally able to predict where Blake and Sun were walking. In his excitement Jaune began to sprint with reckless abandon. He was far too eager to find them at this point, not just for Ruby, but for his own pride in his tracking skills. They were something he cherished, and he would not have them tarnished due to some nausea and headache!

Only two to three blocks away from where he believed Sun and Blake were, Jaune rounded the corner at full speed. This turned out to be a regretful decision for him because he ran full speed into someone and fell flat on his back.

Jaune's head slammed against the pavement, and his headache flared up once more. Jaune groaned and grabbed his head, hoping the pain would dissipate soon. His eyes opened, and Jaune blinked to force the white dots out of his vision.

"First time in Vale, my opinion so far is that people run too fast." A masculine voice commented only two feet away from Jaune.

Jaune pushed his body so he was seated on the ground to get a better look at the person before him. The very first thought Jaune's head produced was that the person wore way too much clothing for Vale weather. The man wore a thick, black, padded jacket that was fully zipped up. The jacket ended just past his waist. His hands were covered by winter protective gloves that were also black. He wore dark brown jeans that overlapped his steel toed black boots. It was hard to spot any remarkable facial features due to the gray scarf wrapped around the man's neck and lower half of his face. Atop the man's head was a black cabbie hat.

Jaune was able to see that the man had curly brown hair, seeing as how some of it stuck out from the sides of the cabbie hat. Another feature that Jaune could notice was that the man had slightly slanted, hazel eyes that held a tired expression. The very last thing that he noticed wasn't a feature, but an accessory. The man had white wired ear buds in each ear, and if Jaune listened close enough, he could hear the faint sounds of heavy metal music coming out of them.

"My bad, I'm in a bit of a rush." Jaune apologized, standing up fully. The man had gotten up before Jaune and was currently dusting himself off. After a few seconds, the man looked lazily in Jaune's direction. Jaune noticed here that standing at full height, the man was about six inches shorter than Jaune.

At first he didn't say anything, which made Jaune feel uncomfortable. Right when Jaune was about to walk away and continue his mission the man spoke.

"Did you say something?" The man said in a borderline baritone voice, followed by a muffled yawn.

"Uh, yeah. I said my bad, and that I was in a hurry." Jaune explained once more, scratching the back of his head as he was prone to do.

The man remained silent once again, and just seemed content to stare at Jaune. Not really with an analytical gaze, but one of just boredom. "Hang on a second, I can't hear a thing when I have my music in." The man stated blandly, slowly raising a hand to remove one of the ear buds.

'Is this guy serious?' Jaune asked himself, completely confused by how odd this person was. He just seemed so unresponsive to what was happening around him. He seemed like the kind of person who was a good target for a mugger. Jaune didn't think the man would notice if he just punched him in the stomach.

"So what were you saying again? You trying to sell me something?" The man asked, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets, his music still playing loudly. All with an expression that told Jaune that this man did not have a care in the world.

"What? No, no. I was apologizing for running into you. I'm just in a bit of a hurry." Jaune explained hastily. He knew he was going to need to wrap this conversation up soon or else he would lose the runaway and her companion.

The man's eyes seemed to widen, if only slightly. As if he was hit with a great realization. Jaune could swear he saw a small spark ignite within the man's eyes.

"That was you?"

Jaune nearly tripped on himself after he heard that. The man didn't even realize that he had run into him! How does that even work?

"You're lucky I'm not like most people from Atlas. If you were to run into one of those stuck ups, you'd more than likely be at the receiving end of a lecture, or the end of a weapon. The latter is less likely to happen, but it happens." The man said with good humor, more emotion present in his voice. It sounded like the man was smiling behind his scarf. Casually, the unknown Atlas man reached into his pocket and retrieved a small box. He used his thumb to slide open the small lid and smacked the box against his hand once. Jaune was slightly surprised that a toothpick is what came out of the plain white box.

"Reminds me of my friend from Atlas, she attends Beacon." Jaune said automatically, slowly forgetting his own objective. Can't blame a guy for having a forgetful mind.

"This friend of yours wouldn't happen to be a Schnee, would it?" The man asked, surprising Jaune. The man toyed with the toothpick for a moment before placing it between his teeth. Jaune noticed how he man visibly relaxed as his teeth clenched down on the thin piece of factory-shaped wood.

"Yeah actually, how did you know?" Jaune asked with curiosity. Sure, there were such things as coincidental guesses, but for someone to get a guess right on their first try out of the hundreds of possible options? That seemed more than lucky.

The man paused for a moment before shrugging, "You don't get far in the Atlas's hunter academy without hearing about her at least once. What was her name again… Was it Rice? Wheat?" The man asked, tapping his head in thought. He seemed genuinely perplexed. The toothpick was pushed with his tongue, making it slide from side to side.

"Weiss is her name, I guess she's famous in her homeland?" Jaune wondered.

"Yeah, somehow. I don't really understand, but whatever. So does that mean you're a Beacon student too?" The man asked, shifting slightly from what Jaune assumed was due to the hot temperatures.

"Yup! And proud of it!" Jaune stated with a thumb to his chest. A grin found its way to his face.

"Heh, what a stroke of luck then. How in the hell do I get there?" The man asked, now excited that he might finally stop practically walking in circles around Vale. The lazy grin the man presented was enough force to cause the now soggy toothpick to snap the soggy stick in half. He didn't bother to spit it out, but just fished another out of his pocket and repeated the same process to get the next toothpick into his mouth as he did with the first.

"Uh, there's an airship station not too far from here. About a mile or so north. It'll have you in Beacon within about twenty minutes. Other than that you'd have to scale the mountain that Beacon is on. I've done it before, but it's challenging." Jaune said. Of course Jaune had tried to climb instead of ride an airship. Jaune was always looking for alternatives to those crappy airships, but had yet to find one that took less than an hour.

The man shuddered and groaned. "Of course it's an airship. Always a damn airship. Well thanks for the help stranger. What's your name by the way? I don't think you ever told me." The man asked, having shrugged off his strange fit.

"Jaune Arc, what's yours?" Jaune reciprocated the question.

"Nathan Gardner." Said the now named Nathan who walked past Jaune and raised his hand lazily into the air, signaling his leave. Jaune waved back, although he knew that Nathan wasn't going to turn around to see it.

"What was I doing here again?" Jaune asked himself, before an imaginary light bulb burst on top of his head. "Dammit, I got sidetracked! You won't get away from me Blake, my pride depends on it!" Jaune shouted, earning him a few odd looks from passersby, but he didn't care. He had an objective to fulfill!

As Jaune took off once more, he couldn't shake the feeling that Nathan gave him. It wasn't once of familiarity, but something like it. Perhaps similarity? But why? Oh well, these were questions for later. Right now he had a runaway to find.

As the sun began to set, Blake found herself scoping out the docks from afar. She and her companion were looking for an acceptable location to stakeout and wait to see if the White Fang actually shows up. Every fiber of her being prayed that it wouldn't be the case, but she couldn't stop the feeling of doubt in the pit of her stomach.

Sun seemed carefree as ever. Hands behind his head and his tail swaying slowly back and forth. Blake did notice that his eyes were at least focused on the task at hand. She still wasn't sure what she thought of her new 'partner.' He seemed to be everything that she wasn't, personality wise. Blake could easily see through his objective through his kind gesture to accompany her. While she was flattered, she didn't want to pursue anything even remotely romantic.

"How about that building?" Sun asked, pointing a finger at a large warehouse. The warehouse was three stories tall, and seemed to be the same as every other warehouse they had taken note of. This one was different in one aspect though, and that is that the roof was slanted away from the docks themselves. This angle could give the two a great amount of cover while staying close by and easy to observe.

"This works. Now let's get ready." Blake said as she quickly made her way to the roof. She used her weapon as a grappling hook and hauled herself up. Sun decided to parkour his way up the fire escape and vault upwards with practiced ease.

Blake wasted no time in finding an ideal spot and lying down on the cold metal roof.. Better to get comfortable now, because it was bound to be a long night.

Which is why it didn't surprise her that not ten minutes later Sun began to speak.

"So this is a stakeout?" Sun asked rhetorically, sitting with his legs dangling off of the roof allowing them to swing freely.

"Yes, and one important part of a stakeout is to stay quiet." Blake informed with restrained annoyance. Her eyes never leaving the dockyards.

"Is this one of the things you did as a White Fang member?" Sun asked, trying to make idle conversation. He had never done anything like this before. There were no classes that focused in stealth and espionage. Most people either had the skills for it before they attended an academy or they didn't.

"Yes, among a few other things before I left. Now can we please focus." Blake requested, but she made it sound like a demand. This was possibly going to be one of the most important nights of her life, and she wouldn't have it ruined by some frat boy.

Sun sighed, but nodded and positioned himself into lying down beside Blake. Blake was thankful for the quiet peace once more, even if she was positive that it wouldn't last.

Two minutes went by, and Sun spoke once more. How predictable.

"You know what. I'm gonna grab some snacks. You want anything?" Sun asked as he stood to leave.

"No."

"Alright, your loss. I'll be back in a few." Sun said before leaping off of the building acrobatically.

Blake sighed, and her shoulders loosened somewhat. The stress of the past few days was really getting to her, and this night was bound to do her no favors. She did her best to hide her inner turmoil from Sun, but now that he was gone her eyes began to water slightly.

'No!' Blake chastised herself, 'You aren't allowed to cry. You have other things to focus on. More important things.' Blake mentally encouraged, but it wasn't helping. She wiped her eyes and steeled her expression once more. She wouldn't let her feelings get in the way of this night. This night would expose the truth of the White Fang, or so she hoped.

Blake nearly jumped up in surprise when she heard a heavy thud from the other end of the roof. She didn't bother to turn her head to greet the intruder, since she assumed that it was Sun returning with food. She hadn't bothered to use her acute senses to distinguish the possible differences.

"You came back earlier than I thought." Blake commented quietly.

"Wouldn't that mean that I was here at some point before?" A familiar voice responded. One that, at the moment, filled her with dread.

Jaune thought Blake would have gotten whiplash due to how fast her head turned to see him. Clearly she was not expecting him to show up, not that he assumed that she would have.

"You are really hard to track down. I've been running around Vale all day trying to find you!" Jaune said with a light hearted grin. He strolled over to sit beside Blake, but as he got close she jumped up like a tightly coiled spring and backed away from him.

"Why are you here?" Blake asked defensively, her hand reaching for the blade handle of Gambol Shroud.

Jaune stopped walking the moment he saw this and raised his hands to show that he meant no harm. "I'm here because Ruby is worried. What the hell's gotten into you Blake?" Jaune asked with concern present in his tone and expression.

Blake paused for a moment to process what Jaune had said. 'Ruby… was worried? Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. Her view of the world is childishly naïve.' Blake didn't remove her hand from her weapon, nor did she get any closer to Jaune.

"Did Ruby tell you why I ran away?" Blake asked slowly, keeping her voice level.

"No, I assumed that it was a team argument." Jaune admitted seriously.

"Then you should leave. I'm positive that your view of me will change if I told you what I truly am, and what I once was." Blake said somberly, her eyes traveled to the floor.

"So you're just assuming that I won't understand your situation then? Blake, I might be an idiot, but I'm not heartless. Everyone has done things that they aren't proud of, me included. If you just go off of assumptions your whole life then you'll never know the truth." Jaune said, taking one small step forward, but keeping his hands up.

Blake's eyes widened, but she still didn't remove her hand from the handle of her weapon. "You don't understand." She claimed desperately. She was a flick of her wrist away from swinging her blade at him to ward him off.

"Then give me the chance to understand. Please Blake, I want to help. Not just for Ruby's sake, but for your own. Your team needs you, and right now you're just tearing yourself apart." Jaune pleaded, lowering his hands so that they rested by his waist. He didn't bother taking another step forward. Blake looked like she was about to flee at any moment, and he didn't want to startle her.

Blake stood still for a whole minute, contemplating Jaune's words. What did she have to lose at this point? It would just be one more person to hate her, not like she was a stranger to such a thing. Her hand shifted from the handle of her weapon to the ribbon that rested on her head. Slowly, almost painfully she pulled on one end of the ribbon. Ever so slowly the ribbon unraveled itself, revealing her cat ears to the open air.

"I am Blake Belladonna, former White Fang operative." Blake stated not-so-proudly, but loud enough to confirm her title.

Blake watched as Jaune's eyes widened. To her the silence was tangible, as if she could weave her hand through it. Although one thing that struck her as odd was that Jaune's eyes had yet to change to the hate and disdain that she was expecting.

'It's only a matter of time.' Blake told herself painfully. She closed her eyes and waited for the verbal abuse that most faunus get nowadays.

"You said 'former operative.' Right?" Jaune asked, still no anger present in his tone oddly enough. It just sounded like regular curiosity.

Blake nodded, still refusing to open her eyes.

"Then what does it matter? You've realized that what you were doing was wrong." Jaune stated casually, as if she hadn't just admitted her darkest secret to him.

Blake's eyes shot open with shock. How could Jaune just shrug off her admittance so… calmly! She almost wanted to tie him up and explain what exactly being a While Fang member in this day and age meant.

"B-but I'm a faunus!" Blake tried to reason against herself.

"Okay? So what?" Jaune asked with an uplift of his shoulders and hands. "You can't possibly have expected me to be a racist. I protected Velvet when Cardin was being an ass to her. Would a racist really go out of his way to harm another racist?" Jaune reasoned easily.

Blake found herself at a loss of words. She almost slapped herself for assuming such a thing. She had assumed that Jaune was going to hate her, but it seemed that he just didn't care about her background. Either he was the most understanding person in the world, or he was the most naïve individual in the world.

"So I'm going to contact Ruby now and let her know where you are if that's okay. She's worried sick right now and I'm sure the rest of your team feels the same." Jaune said, pulling out his scroll.

"No!" Blake shouted quickly. With the speed of a cat Blake slapped the scroll out of Jaune's hands. The small piece of technology fell to the rooftop and shattered upon its forceful impact.

"Ah, come on! I was just figuring out how to get games on the damn thing!" Jaune complained like a distraught child. He even went as far as to kneel and collect the broken bits in sorrow. Blake sincerely hoped that he was just being theatrical for the humor of it.

"I'm sorry Jaune, but I can't let you tell her that I'm here." Blake said, not too regretful for destroying an item that students got for free.

Finished with his antics, Jaune stood back up. Now only slightly annoyed with the loss of his scroll. "Why?" Jaune asked, obviously curious for the reason that Blake destroyed his scroll.

"Because… Sun and I are waiting for something." Blake explained vaguely as she looked back to the docks. Jaune noticed that her eyes seemed to focus a great amount on the docks themselves.

"And that something would be…?" Jaune prodded, eyebrow raised.

Blake sighed and turned her head back to face Jaune. "A possible White Fang Dust robbery."

Jaune's eyes widened in realization. "So that's why you're here. Wait, how do you know that they would come here for dust?"

Before Blake could answer, a pair of feet slammed onto the metal roof. Jaune and Blake both turned their heads to meet the gaze of Sun. Sun, for his part, looked surprised that Jaune was right in front of him. So shocked, in fact, that he nearly dropped the apples he had 'procured.'

"Hey Jaune, what's up?" Sun asked instinctively, casually walking towards both of the teenagers on the roof.

"I don't even know anymore." Jaune said in good nature. Once Sun was close enough Jaune swiped an apple from Sun's arms. Sun almost spoke up to stop him, but remembered that he had knocked over Jaune's colossal amount of food. Deciding to ignore a possible argument, Sun shrugged and took his place next to Blake. Jaune followed close behind, laying down on his stomach as he took a bite out of the red apple. A satisfied grin grew onto Jaune's face.

"So what's he doing here?" Sun asked quietly, hoping that Jaune didn't hear him.

"He was tracking me down. Apparently my… former team leader sent him after me." Blake responded, not as quiet seeing as how she knew of Jaune's heightened senses.

Sun looked over to Jaune, who looked back and smiled. Sun smiled back awkwardly and turned his gaze to Blake once more. "Well whatever, want an apple?" Sun offered to Blake with an outstretched hand holding the ripe fruit out to her.

Blake looked at the apple questioningly, "Where did you even get that? Most produce stores would have closed by the time you left the rooftop." Blake asked, already feeling that the answer was one that she wouldn't approve of.

"Eh, those fruit stands won't miss a few apples." Sun replied easily.

"You stole the apples?" Blake asked rhetorically, and with clear disapproval in her voice.

"Weren't you a part of a cult or something?" Sun jabbed back with a friendly grin.

Blake couldn't find it within herself to argue back. Now that darkness had fallen upon the docks, the time she was waiting for was soon at hand.

Before any more words were spoken, all three trainees were hit with a strong gust of wind. Their eyes quickly found the source. A large airship with bright spotlights was quickly descending from the sky. The propellers angled themselves to hover slowly to the ground. As soon as it touched the ground, a door open and a walkway extended outwards. One by one people wearing black, white, and red filed out to examine the area. Their features were covered by masks and hoods. Although some had animalistic features that weren't hidden, line tails and ears on top of their heads.

"Oh no." Blake muttered, her fears slowly being realized.

"Is that them?" Sun asked, finally serious for once. Jaune remained on his stomach, but shuffled forwards to get a better view. He had already finished his apple, and even though his appetite wasn't satisfied he had to focus.

There was one thing that bothered Jaune. There was a scent coming from the ship. One that was labeled in his mind, but still fuzzy. Whatever the smell was, it put him on edge. It even went as far as to make him feel rage.

"Yes," Blake confirmed, spotting the symbol of the White Fang even from their distance away, "It's them."

"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?" Sun asked, his eyes on Blake. Neither noticed the odd noise that creaked next to them.

"No, I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right." Blake said with composed remorse. Was there a chance that this sort of thing could have been prevented had she stayed in the White Fang? Could she have changed Adam's views if she pushed hard enough?

Blake was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a voice project itself over the noise of the airship.

"Hey, what's the hold up!" The voice yelled from inside the ship. The White Fang members that were outside looked up to see their boss. Lo and behold, Roman Torchwick came strolling out of the airship. "We aren't exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment. Why don't you animals try to pick up the pace." Roman commanded with zero tact for his comments. Of course, the White Fang members complied, as if they had a choice.

"This isn't right, the White Fang would never work with a human. Especially one like that." Blake said as she stood up and drew one half of her arsenal. Her eyes screamed anger and Sun could see it clear as day.

Blake was about to run off, and Sun was preparing for the inevitable. Something stopped them, however. The sound of metal bending loudly. It was close, way too close.

Both faunus's turned to see Jaune still prone, but his body was slowly being enveloped in his own white aura. His hands were clenched so tightly to the metal beneath him that it was actually bending due to the pressure. The growl coming from Jaune became louder and louder until it could no longer be contained.

"ROMAN!" Jaune bellowed, his rage heard over the loud airship. Every White Fang member and Roman Torchwick looked up at the disturbance, but by the time their eyes landed on the source Jaune was on the move.

Jaune leapt off of the roof and landed in a crouch, shattering the concrete beneath his feet. Without missing a beat Jaune sprinted towards Roman and his men, his white aura easily visible in the dark. To the White Fang onlookers it looked like a white missile was racing towards them.

Seeing the threat quickly approaching them, the more combatant White Fang members grabbed their rifles and swords respectively. Roman didn't raise any form of defense, simply content to watch this play out for now. He felt as though he should recognize someone who would expose themselves so easily to a terrorist group, but he was still too far away to tell. The white aura gave him an ominous feeling though.

The first group of White Fang rushed towards Jaune, hoping to cut him off halfway. Those with rifles stayed back and opened fire from a distance. They weren't sure if their bullets were hitting or not, since the blonde didn't slow down at all, but they didn't stop their barrage.

Meanwhile, Blake was stood still in shock of Jaune's actions. He seemed so calm mere minutes ago, but now… He seemed like a man who had nothing left to lose and wanted revenge.

Sun grabbed her shoulders forcefully and shook her, "Snap out of it! We gotta help him out. He's gonna get himself killed!" Sun yelled, hoping what he was saying was getting through to her.

Blake's eyes blinked several times before they refocused. As soon as they did though Blake bolted off of the roof, with Sun close behind. Both had their weapons drawn and were ready for combat. There was one question that raced through Blake's mind though.

'How does Jaune know Roman?'

The first wave of White Fang members to attack Jaune were plowed through and ignored by Jaune. His eyes were only centered on one individual, Roman. The man who was responsible for corrupting his body with a crystal and putting him through torture to do the process. Roman didn't even appear fazed by Jaune's appearance. Meaning that Roman either didn't recognize him, or just thought that he was a waste of his own time. Both possibilities made Jaune seethe with rage.

Seeing the human missile speed towards him, Roman pointed his cane at Jaune and fired without hesitation. His cane firing a firework-like projectile that soared past the heads of the White Fang members. The bright intensity of the explosion obscured the vision of those on the docks. Following the explosion was a large cloud of smoke.

The White Fang members began to mutter amongst themselves, wondering if the teenager was unconscious or dead. Roman seemed to scoff at the more shaken members of his crew. Truly they looked like they were about to run with their tails between their legs.

"Alright, back to work you mongrels. We have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it." Roman motioned to the crates, but a commotion out of the corner of his eye distracted him. The smoke that he created had started to dissipate, revealing Jaune with his shield expanded. He had been knocked back several feet from taking the explosive projectile head on, but otherwise appeared unharmed.

Jaune began to move again. Slowly at first, but gaining speed by the second. Roman growled and launched another attack from his Melodic Cudgel. This time Jaune sidestepped the projectile with ease. The rifle bearing White Fang members began to fire at Jaune once more, but just like last time their bullets did not slow Jaune's approach.

Finally sensing a legitimate threat come from the teenager, Roman switched his grip on his modified cane so he could use it to bludgeon the fool. More White Fang raced towards the teen, but this time Jaune attacked rather than ran through them.

"White Dragon's Holy Breath!" Jaune called out, the attack flowing from his mouth at dangerous speeds. The highly explosive attack landed in the center of a large group of White Fang members. Most being without aura or with only small amounts of aura were taken down instantly. There were only a handful that were able to stand up on stable feet.

Roman's eyes widened a marginal amount after seeing the attack Jaune had unleashed. He had seen it somewhere before, but just as the thought had appeared something landed behind him. He couldn't react fast enough, and now there was a black blade being held at his throat.

'Fantastic, this night just keeps getting better and better.' Roman thought with disdain. The grip on his cudgel tightened. 'I might have to reveal my ace in the hole sooner than I would have liked, but I guess I did plan on this sort of thing happening.'

"Brothers of the White Fang, why are you aiding this criminal!" Blake asked as she eyed those that surrounded her. Most of the White Fang members were distracted by Jaune, but some had stayed behind to resume their work or defend Roman as a last line of defense. The few that formed the circle around the girl in black started to lower their weapons. Some of the more veteran members of the White Fang recognized the girl. She was second only to Adam in power.

However, recently the shift of power has been apparent within the Fang. While all of the terrorists rally behind Adam as their leader, there have been a few very specific members who have been suspected of being just as strong as Adam. Perhaps even stronger. With that in mind, their individual weapons were raised once more. They knew what would happen if they let Roman die now.

"Didn't you get the memo kid? The White Fang and I are on a new business venture." Roman replied cheekily, seemingly uncaring that he was being held hostage.

"We are stopping your little operation here and now. Jaune is already making quick work of everyone here, and I hold no hesitation of killing you here." Blake hoped that sounded intimidating. Truth be told she wasn't sure if she could kill Roman, even if he was a despicable person. She just pleaded that Roman bought her bluff.

"I wouldn't call it a little operation." Roman said as he stared towards the night sky. Almost as if in response to his comment, several more large transport ships descended from the sky. Each one unloading several squads of White Fang members.

Blake couldn't believe her eyes. There were this many loyal faunus willing to cooperate in this? Unfortunately this distraction cost her greatly. She didn't notice Roman angle his cane so the barrel was pointed to her feet. Without a word Roman fired an explosive firework directly into the ground. The explosion threw Blake several feet into a storage crate. She impacted the crate with enough force to dent it, leaving her fairly injured until her aura went to work on her.

Roman didn't intend to let her get back up again, but his sixth sense developed from years of criminal acts detected a new danger. One that would need to be focused on first, as it was much greater.

"Roman!" Jaune roared as he dove shield first into Roman. Roman was quick enough to sidestep the attack, but Jaune was far from done. Jaune drew his sword from his expanded shield and swung horizontally. Roman deflected the blade and retaliated with a swift strike with his cane. Roman could almost say that he was impressed with the speed that the blonde teenager brought his shield up with in order to block the attack.

This thought quickly changed to legitimate surprise when Jaune dropped his sword and went for a straight punch. Jaune's fist shined brightly with holy power. "White Dragon's Claw!" Jaune's fist switched to an open hand with his fingers pointed towards Roman.

Sensing the danger the attack posed, Roman knocked the hand away and quickly regained his balance. Sliding cleanly into a distance attack stance, Roman raised the cane's barrel and fired once more. Just like last time Jaune moved his shield to block the explosive. The volatile force knocked him back once more and jarred his arm, but he was still unharmed.

The two stared at each other, not even bothered by the sounds of combat behind them. Sun had jumped in to defend Blake from advancing White Fang members, thus giving her enough time to recover. While the two experienced fighters were making short work of the weaker White Fang members, they were slowly being overrun by the sheer amount of enemies that seemed to appear from nowhere.

Roman looked deep into the burning blue eyes of his opponent. His mind slowly piecing together memories of the teenagers details and fighting style.

'Wait a second.' Roman thought to himself.

"You seem to have a great deal of hate for me. What's got your panties in a twist?" Roman asked casually, even going as far to lean on his cane as if he were having a regular conversation. While this may appear like he's letting his guard down in front of a foe, this was really a deceptive combat stance. The slack of his legs grants him the leverage to jump away from any surprise ranged attack while having the cane in front of him lets him defend against a frontal assault.

"Do you seriously not remember me you bastard? You kidnapped me a few years back! You and your damn goons corrupted my own power with your artificial aura amplifier!" Jaune shouted, his voice hoarse with rage. It was taking all of his restraint not to run in and attack Roman again.

Being presented with this new information Roman was able to finally remember just who this teen was. This remembrance also came with the memory of the loss of a large amount of funds that went along with the experimentation of the boy, along with the loss of a perfectly good base of operations.

Still, he would not break his snarky character. "Wait, wait, wait. What was you?" Roman asked with exasperated surprise. Roman now knew from Jaune's reactions that the boy was mad that Roman didn't recognize him. He'd use that anger against him. "I'm sorry, there's just so many times that I've screwed with people. You're hardly a memorable case."

"Why you…" Jaune could feel his restraint slipping.

"Why would you be angry with me? I gave you more power. Isn't that something that you Dragon Slayers crave?" Roman said, his smirk ever present.

Jaune felt his eyes widen without his own consent. Sure it was now obvious that he was a Dragon Slayer, but how would Roman know what a Dragon Slayer would want? Jaune was positive that Roman wasn't a Dragon Slayer himself, so why would he speak like he knew anything about a Dragon Slayer?

"Well it's been fun, but seeing as how you and your friends are currently clearing out the pitiful soldiers that I brought with me I feel as though I should leave." With that remark Roman turned around and started to walk away. Even twirling his cane in an easy going manner.

"No you don't!" Jaune yelled as he sped towards his opponent. For years he had wanted to defeat Roman, and now Roman was trying to get away from him. Not happening! Roman had too much to answer for.

Within seconds Jaune was right behind Roman, his fist pulled back to deliver a devastating punch.

"Once more, White Dragon's Claw!" Jaune cried out, his fist opening to form a claw-like attack. The attack was sure to stop Roman in his tracks. The White Dragon's Claw was meant to stun rather than damage, but that was just what he wanted. A stunned Roman was a defenseless Roman.

If the attack connected to its target.

"What the hell!" Jaune yelled out in shock and pain. Right before Jaune was able to hit Roman, a solid wall of white erected itself to block the blow. Jaune felt as though he had tried to shove his fingers through steel. Leaping away, Jaune clutched his hand and kept his eye out for another attacker. He could feel another presence, and it wasn't friendly.

"Ah, I was waiting for you to jump in. You sure took your sweet time." Roman said as if to blame someone. Roman cast his eyes to a nearby alley and scoffed. "Truly you need to work on your assistant skills. I wish I had brought my own assistant instead of another White Fang dog."

"Your comments are both insulting and unwanted, filth." A surprisingly young male voice called back. "I was told to not come out unless it was necessary, and thanks to your theatrics I had to protect your back." Jaune saw a shadowy figure move from the alley to Roman's side. As the light of the moon struck the newcomer Jaune was filled with a strange feeling. He couldn't place his finger on it.

The newcomer looked like most White Fang soldiers, decked out in dark clothes with armor on the torso, arms, and legs. The hood covered most of the youth's head, and the basic Grimm mask covered the rest of his face except for his mouth. The boy looked lanky and sickeningly pale. The person was short and not very assuming, but from what Jaune felt with the pillar he could tell that the young man was dangerous, even without any visible weapons.

"Where's your sense of fun? Doing the unexpected is one way to throw the enemy off. Even though it didn't work I knew I could count on you, little buddy." Roman said, further antagonizing the boy. Roman could tell that the boy wanted to strike at him, but Roman also knew that the boy couldn't. Orders were orders.

Roman took a moment to look at his surroundings, and what he saw wasn't pleasing. Apparently the girl in red he had fought not too long ago had arrived, and had joined the other two nuisances in taking down his men. If that wasn't bad enough, there was another girl who was controlling several blades who was demolishing his men with ease. Each swing defeated several soldiers. At this point even the reinforcements were being thrashed.

"I hate to say it, but this operation has taken a turn for the worse. I say that we take our leave." Roman concluded, uncaring that he was leaving a large amount of White Fang to the justice of Vale.

"Your cowardice will be the end of you Roman. As much as it pains me to leave my brethren I have to agree." The young boy regretfully seconded Roman. His eyes shifted from his fallen comrades to the blonde not too far away from him.

"Enough talk! You two are going down!" Jaune shouted, with one deft motion Jaune extracted three white dust capsules from his shield. Tanking the explosions had filled the dust vials completely. Without any hesitation Jaune swallowed the contents. Only a mere second passed before Jaune felt the effects.

"White Drive!" Jaune shouted, his entire body glowing and pulsing with raw power. A faint pillar of light started to take shape around Jaune as a testament to this power. Forcing the White Drive this way was always painful, but he would bear with it if it gave him the power to take Roman and his new accomplice down.

"White Dragon's Holy Ray!" Following the attack name was several bright projectiles soaring towards his enemies. Jaune had no doubt that the attacks would not miss, especially with the amount of surface area they covered as a whole. There was hardly any way to dodge such a wide spread attack.

The volley struck the ground in several places around the criminal duo. Several pieces of debris was produced as collateral damage from the devastating attack. Jaune couldn't see his foes with the amount of light that each attack produced, but he wasn't going to wait. Headstrong, Jaune dove into the attacks epicenter and struck forward.

What he didn't expect was to meet the same resistance that stopped his attack on Roman last time.

Jaune put more force behind his punch due to the overloaded White Drive, so when his fist struck something incredibly dense it shouldn't have surprised him that he heard a sickening crack come from his arm. Either his wrist or his forearm had broken from the impact.

Jaune jumped back, holding his injured arm and gritting his teeth. As the light and smoke cleared from his attack, Jaune was able to see what exactly had stopped him.

A dome, a faded white dome. There was several cracks spreading from where Jaune had punched it, but it still remained strong. The dome was only about ten feet tall and half as wide, but Jaune knew why. It was shielding the two.

"White Dragon's Roar!"

The thinner ranged attack struck the weakened area that his fist had created. The strong structure held for only a moment before it crumbled into pieces. Jaune was sure that his opponents would be inside of the dome, but much to his shock there was no sign of them.

Jaune heard laughter in the distance. Fearing the worst Jaune turned his head to find the source. His fears were confirmed when he saw Roman and the boy both aboard a small shuttle. The shuttle only looked like it could hold four people, favoring speed over capacity. It was his escape vehicle.

Seeing his target leave Jaune began to fire roar after roar, each laser missing by several feet due to the evasive capability of the aircraft. As the ship as almost out of sight completely Jaune fired one last roar, but this one was far weaker than the rest. The white laser stopped far shorter than the rest, signaling that his White Drive had run out.

His body crumbled beneath him, the strain of the forced White Drive taking its toll. Jaune fell to the ground knees first, his shoulders going slack. Jaune could only stare off into the distance that the aircraft had taken off into, knowing that even though no winner was decided, he had lost.

"Damn it all." Jaune muttered in defeat. Today was just not his day.

**This got really hard to write near the end as some could probably tell. Not happy with it, but I am glad that I finally finished a chapter in something.**


	23. Food Fight

Despite all of the recent commotion that had just transpired at the docks, the teen heroes were unusually quiet. The remaining members of team RWBY had arrived just after the law enforcement showed up for their investigation and questioning. Although there were several surveillance cameras stationed at the docks, the police investigators still wanted proof of what had happened.

Back to team RWBY, the atmosphere was tense with the arrival of the yellow and white duo. This coupled with the slight fear of Jaune, who was repeatedly smashing his head and fists into a metal shipping container. He had been doing so for several minutes. Sun chose to sit nearby and wait to step in just in case Blake tried to make a mad dash away or something else happened. Penny was seated atop a wooden crate simply absorbing all of the new information on humans based on their reactions. To her it was intriguing and a slightly thrilling experience.

As Weiss strode over to Blake, Ruby sprinted over and began to babble in Blake's defense, perhaps to try and lessen the inevitable anger fest that would be the Schnee and Ex-White Fang member reunion.

"Weiss, before you say anything I just want to say that I am no longer associated with the White Fang, and-!" Blake hastily explained, before a dainty hand was held to her face. The hand was so close Blake almost went cross eyed.

"Stop," Weiss began sternly, "Do you know how long we've been searching for you? Twelve Hours." Weiss said, not letting Blake answer her question, "And that means that I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours I've decided…" Weiss paused, almost for dramatic effect, which everyone felt in spades. There were no sounds besides the occasional sound of flesh impacting metal that Jaune persisted on continuing.

"I don't care," Weiss concluded.

"You don't care?" Blake asked, clearly in shock and disbelief. Rightfully so, since she was a former member of the terrorist group that was the public enemy of the Schnee. Blake would even shamefully admit to assisting in some of the first dust robberies against the Schnee.

"You said you aren't one of them anymore, right?" Weiss asked, eyes locked on Blake. Slowly but surely the tension died down. Shoulders were slumped, and smiles were becoming more apparent.

"No, I haven't been in-," Blake tried to continue, but was once again cut off by that pale, dainty hand.

"I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is that the next time something this big happens, you come to your team first. And not some blond boys." Weiss requested. The entirety of RWBY's eyes trailed over to Sun, who looked away awkwardly, and then to Jaune. Jaune, at this point, had stopped bashing his hands into the crate and seemed content to just glare at the night sky. Blake and Sun thought that he was staring in the direction that the Bullhead carrying Roman had fled.

Blake had to wipe away a tear to keep her composure in check. Despite the situation, she had the best team she could have had, "Of course." She replied happily.

"Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!" Ruby cheered, fists pumping wildly before she outstretched both of her arms, "Group hug!" She exclaimed, practically demanded from the way her eyes looked to every single person around her.

Weiss and Blake seemed to not enjoy this idea, but were dragged in by the sisters. As if their team cheer was a black hole, Sun was dragged in as well. He didn't want to feel too involved with the team reunion, but if they wanted to share their cheer, who was he to say no? Plus he got to hug Blake for free, kind of. He chose to be to Blake's left in order to not hug Weiss. Something told him that he shouldn't try and hug her, or even touch her. The group hugged for a moment, before the sisters realized that something was missing.

"Hey, this includes you too Lady Killer." Yang stated, breaking away from the hug to drag Jaune over to them. Jaune didn't seem to hear her, but Yang finally got a reaction out of him when she gripped his hood tightly and began to pull him over to the crescent-moon shaped group of friends.

Jaune snapped out of his brooding in order to clear his suddenly blocked airway, "ACK, Yang what the hell?!" Jaune thrashed and flailed, trying to keep his hoodie from digging into his neck any more.

"We aren't going to have you stand over there all pissy while the rest of us have a touching moment." Yang explained with a grin. Once the blond duo of contrasting emotions arrived back at the group, Yang pulled Jaune to his feet and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. Thankfully she was far gentler than with his neck. Ruby was to his right, and she was more than happy to lock him in place with her small arm around his ribcage due to the height difference.

Jaune contemplated breaking away, but what was the point? Even if he was having a bad day, he still had his friends. To solidify this fact, Jaune took in all of the faces within the group. While most were sporting awkward smiles and sideways glances, they all seemed happy to be where they were. Despite himself, Jaune smiled. Though it was a small smile, it was genuine. That was all the group needed.

"Wait, where's Penny?" Ruby asked as the group separated. The only ones who seemed confused were Sun and Jaune, having not met a person named Penny before.

* * *

Unknown to the group, Penny was watching in the distance through a shaded car window. Her expression was that of sadness and disappointment.

"You should know better than to go running around in a strange city," the driver of the vehicle said. His tone was neutral, but had a hint of understanding.

"I know sir." Penny responded with an ironically robotic monotone.

"Penny, your time will come." The driver reassured her. Without exchanging any more words, the car was started and drove away without any suspicion.

* * *

Back at Beacon, Ozpin watched from one of the remotely accessible cameras that he had. He took the idea of having eyes everywhere very seriously. The camera was focused on a group of teenagers of varying color patterns, but the shot of the camera was specifically focused on Ruby and Jaune.

Seeing a notification appear in the messenger app of his scroll, Ozpin hummed and clicked on the digital envelope. The message said, 'The Queen has pawns.' The number and team name of this contact remained blank, but the only word that was necessary to identify with was the contact name 'Qrow.'

"My, what a turn of events." Ozpin stated to himself. Closing his scroll with a sigh, Ozpin turned his chair to face the large windows that overlooked the cliff Beacon rested on along with a portion of the city down below.

"I may need to gather more pieces."

* * *

The days that followed the event at the docks were far more tame and manageable than fighting terrorists. Blake was told that she would need to see Ozpin on a later date, but dissuaded her from visiting him immediately so she could relax from the incident first. Blake was glad for it, but she was not looking forward to what she imagined would be an interrogation.

Sun had chosen to stay in the dorms meant for the students arriving to compete in the Vytal Festival. He had shown up earlier than the rest of his team, due to him not having the patience to wait for the actual student transport boat. Sun had told everyone that his best friend and teammate, Neptune, would be showing up soon. Strangely enough, Neptune left earlier than Sun had, but had chosen to arrive in Vale through train. When he was asked about it, Sun just said that it wasn't his place to tell, but he seemed annoyed when he said it.

Jaune was easily the most effected by the battle at the docks. While his mood had been slowly getting better, it still wasn't one hundred percent Jaune. He still broods when nobody is looking, but responds positively when he is asked to hang out or spar. During the spars, he focuses harder than before. Usually he had fun fighting someone, but now he was training to get better. He actually tried to keep a hold of his weapons instead of using the first excuse presented to him so he could use his fists. This made the spars fairer since he wasn't as good with his sword and shield, but still had enough skill with them along with his semblance to make the fight less one sided.

Focusing on Jaune, he was currently zoned out inside of the cafeteria, slowly picking away at his food as his friends talked. Jaune heard a loud thud, which was soon followed by Weiss responding negatively to something Ruby had said. Ruby sounded like she was giving a speech, and everyone was humoring her. Even after all of this, Jaune still wasn't contributing much into the usual discussions of the joint team table.

Yang, once again, had killed the mood with an awful pun. Jaune didn't even need to hear what it was to know that it was a shitty pun due to the collective reaction of the table, and the red thing that was thrown in Yang's direction immediately after. More words were traded, a green ball looking thing flew by, this time back towards the person who threw the first projectile.

The thing that finally snapped Jaune out of his trance was Nora, who loudly yelled, "I got it!"

"Huh?" Jaune said, just before seeing a cream pie fly right into Weiss's face. Jaune could only process the horror of what had happened for a moment before all hell broke loose in the Beacon Cafeteria.

Amongst all of the chaos, Jaune looked for whatever cover he could find. Food sailed over his head left and right. He vaulted over turned over table, just in time to have a large piece of steak fly over his head. Jaune took a cautious peek over the table to figure out what was happening.

Much to his surprise, team RWBY had started hording food over to their side of the cafeteria. On the other side was his team, doing something similar, but focusing more on defense. Pyrrha, who he had imagined being confused or even appalled by what was happening, was actually using her semblance on the nails within the tables to build a fort of some kind. In mere seconds the world's most health hazardous fort was erected, and atop it was the mighty Queen of the castle.

'Fuck it, I guess this is happening.' Jaune thought as he ran towards his team with a wide grin on his face.

Nora let out a wild cackle, and for a moment Jaune thought that he had seem lighting stick next to her. "Off with their heads!" she declared menacingly, "I'm Queen of the Castle, I'm Queen of the Castle!" Nora's voice practically demanded war and dominance. Jaune would let her take the reins as leader for now. This impromptu war was started by her after all.

Off on the other side of the cafeteria, Ruby slammed her foot onto a table, forcing all of the items that had been on the table to be knocked off. Her eyes burned with righteous determination. Clasped tightly in her hand was a carton of milk.

"Justice will be swift. Justice will be painful. It will be delicious!" Upon yelling the last proclamation, Ruby applied massive pressure to the milk carton, forcing it to burst in several areas. Behind her, the rest of team RWBY was rallied behind her with their fists raised in agreement. Jaune's eyebrows went upward seeing Weiss actually involved with something that was sure to turn out messy. Maybe she just wanted to finish what was started by Nora?

"Off with their heads!" Nora ordered once more, leaping down from her wooden throne. Before their fort was a mass of watermelons for a powerful ranged defensive. And underneath Jaune and Ren were soda dispensers. They clearly had the ranged advantage, and they would capitalize on that easily.

All of team JNPR began to volley the watermelons over towards team RWBY, all in their own unique throwing styles. In Ren's case that would be to kick them over. Pyrrha had favored quantity over power, and threw one with each hand. Jaune had done the opposite and used the momentum of a front flip to throw one watermelon. Nora had simply flipped the table displaying any watermelon that wasn't taken to be thrown. Her strength was so great that she effortlessly used both quantity and power to launch watermelons at their opponents.

Team RWBY had been ready, however, and used Yang was a means to clear a path through the wave of watermelons. She shoved both of her fists inside of two fully cooked turkeys and punched her way through the melony horde. Once the path was clear, Blake took the lead with a baguette in each hand. Yang followed close behind. Together they plowed through the first wave of JNPR projectiles.

Yang used her arm strength to propel the turkeys from her arms straight at Jaune. Jaune was ready however, and caught one of them. The other he had to dodge since he used both hands to catch the first one. Ignoring the gross feeling of sliding his fist into the turkey, Jaune looked around for what he could use as a shield. Off in the corner he found two metal trash cans. The lids had handles on the top that one could use as an effective grip.

"I'll be back in a sec!" Jaune yelled to his team as he sped over to the metal garbage containers. Pyrrha nodded to him right before he clashed breads with Blake. Neither giving way easily. Blake decided not to try and out muscle Pyrrha, so she acrobatically flipped over her. Pyrrha wouldn't let this distract her as she continued to fight Blake with her single bread loaf. The clashing of bread continued until Blake made the mistake of using one of her baguettes as a projectile. Pyrrha dodged the bread with ease, and smirked as she saw it break in half. Pyrrha capitalized on Blake's lack of proper defense and hit her hard in the gut with her baguette.

Blake was out of the fight for a moment, and Pyrrha used that moment to throw more baguettes at Yang. Yang deflected two, but left herself open for the third. Ruby sped past her sister as she slid towards Pyrrha on top of a metal tray. Pyrrha had thrown a bread loaf at Ruby, but the metal tray proved to be a solid defense. The bread was sent back at the champion, forcing her to roll out of the way to avoid getting hit. This allowed Ruby to get close enough to strike Pyrrha with the bottom of the tray. Pyrrha only had her arms to avert the blow. Pyrrha was knocked back into the soda machines, but was instantly replaced by Jaune. Jaune had taken two trash can lids, one was held in his left hand while the other was strapped to his side using one of his two belts.

Jaune led the counter-attack with Ren and Nora right behind him. Weiss had laid a trap for them in the form of ketchup. The tomato sauce was smeared on the floor within seconds, and Ren lost his traction. Jaune winced as he heard Ren slam painfully into a pile of tables and chairs. Nora had used one of the tables that was launched from the pile to ascend higher into the air. Using her monstrous strength, she ripped a metal bar from one of the support rails in the ceiling. Jaune didn't need to be a genius to see what she was doing.

Ruby valiantly defended Weiss as a meat shield for the incoming melon hammer. With one strike she was knocked out of the way. Weiss grabbed a swordfish from the ground, but instead of striking at Nora with help from her semblance, she was forced to block a strike from Jaune's turkey fist. Using the side of the wide fish, Weiss was able to keep up a stalwart defense. Jaune repeatedly bashed his poultry fist into the fish, but it wouldn't budge. The only thing making Jaune press his ruthless attack was the fact that Weiss was being knocked back with each hit.

"Fly!" Jaune declared, but as he drew his fist back two deceptively slender arms wrapped around his.

"Not today she's not You are!" Yang roared as she tossed Jaune into the air. Jaune wouldn't allow himself to be taken down so easily, so he flipped so his feet impacted into the ceiling. Using his legs, Jaune pushed himself so he came back down far faster than just falling. Yang had to jump out of the way to avoid the turkey dive-bomb fist. The impact obliterated the turkey that had encased Jaune's right hand. Jaune had quickly rearmed himself using the spar trash can lid attached to his waist. Weiss and Blake went to flank Jaune from both sides, but Ren and Nora were quick to intercept them with leeks and a melon hammer at the ready.

This left Jaune to fight Yang one on one. Yang armed for pure offence while Jaune was geared for defense.

"Which do you think will break first, Lady Killer? Your trash or my turkey?" Yang questioned dramatically. While Jaune was all for dramatics, he couldn't help but kill the mood of this one.

"Well, I'm using metal and you have meat. I think we both know how that's gonna work out." Jaune replied with a smirk. Yang smirked back at the challenge.

"You can make anything into a weapon with a little bit of aura." This statement was followed by a turkey fist impacting against a small metal shield. Jaune blocked a few incoming fists and then retaliated by trying to shield bash Yang away. Yang leaned away from the attack and made to punch Jaune's outstretched shield. Jaune spun so the attack wouldn't connect, but wasn't fast enough to evade a jab to his exposed side. Jaune was quickly put on full defensive as Yang proceeded to wail on Jaune's shields.

Off to his right was Blake, trying to use a long series of sausage links as a whip against Ren's vegetable batons. This didn't work as Ren used the durability of his veggie weapon to his advantage and hacked away at the sausage. Each attack cut a single link of sausage away at a time, letting Ren slowly get closer to his target. Blake knew this, and proceeded to switch her edible weapon. Thinking fast, she grabbed two long carrots from the ground and held them in a reverse grip. Before their battle could continue their battle, Pyrrha had taken the liberty of using her semblance on all of the soda cans, manipulating them to her will. After shaking them for several minutes as the fights broke out, she decided that her ranged assault was all set to go. Ren broke off from the fight, but Blake wasn't fast enough to escape every single can. She was quickly knocked out of the fight.

At the same time, Weiss was struggling to keep up with Nora's powerful offensive. The hammer melon wielder had the advantage of reach, and while Weiss didn't want to admit it, Nora was almost as fast as herself once she got the momentum of the hammer going. Weiss could only poke at Nora's arms and legs, but that could only do so much damage. Eventually Weiss had shown a crack in her defenses, and that was all Nora needed to slam her melon hammer into her, knocking her into a pillar and out of the fight.

Ruby dramatically mourned for the loss of Weiss and Blake as Yang broke away from her fight with Jaune to avoid getting flanked on all sides from the rest of team JNPR. Yang was panting, but not heavily. During their fight Yang had not once broken through Jaune's metal defense. Ruby had no food weapon while the entirety of team JNPR were armed to the teeth. While Yang was ready to go down swinging, Ruby had other plans.

"Back up Yang, I've got a plan!" Ruby ordered confidently. Not having any better ideas, Yang backed away as far as she could. Without a word, Ruby dashed forwards at comet-like speeds. The pure force of her semblance dragged various items behind her. Anything that wasn't bolted to the ground was picked up by the strong winds created by Ruby's semblance.

"Crap, crap, crap!" Jaune said in a panic. Thinking fast, Jaune undid his belt and wrapped it around a nearby flagpole that was welded into the floor. Fastening the belt back through his belt loops, Jaune was effectively tied to the pole. Jaune used his trash can lids to cover as much of his body as possible. He could hear projectiles bouncing off of the metal lids with great force, and some of those projectiles struck his uncovered legs and shoulders. Jaune struggled to keep his eyes open, but the struggle was well worth it as he grabbed the two best things he could have asked for out of the air. While individually, these consumable products weren't too dangerous, but together they might just give Jaune the victory his team needed in this food fight.

The rest of his teammates weren't nearly as lucky, as they had been swept up by the updraft. The horizontal tornado of food collided into them with as they slammed into the back wall. Ruby had wrapped herself into her cloak to cover herself from the food and wood flying everywhere. Suddenly, Ruby flipped and landed on the floor just before hitting the wall. The momentum behind her left a large crater into the wall. Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha were helpless as they couldn't move any part of their bodies. The collective food and broken wood impacted each and every one of them. Their bodies were entirely covered with various foods and sauces.

As the winds finally stopped, their bodies fell to the ground. Jaune slid down the pole and looked to see how his teammates were. To his surprise, they had all been covered in several colors. Their imprints were made clear on the wall, and from the look of them he had to guess that they weren't getting back up for round two. This only left him to avenge his team.

Yang ran back over to Ruby, both sisters had wicked grins on their faces. They thought that they had one. But Jaune had one last ace in the hole. His last all or nothing gambit. His final technique.

"Wow, I'm really impressed Ruby. If I hadn't tied myself down to this pole I would have been caught up in that food disaster." Jaune complimented. He had his arms wrapped tightly around something, and his shields made the objects more obscured. To Yang and Ruby, it looked like he was holding his chest. As if he were trying to get air that was sucked out of him during Ruby's attack.

"Yeah, I'm pretty awesome." Ruby said with her arms crossed. "I'm ready to discuss the terms of your surrender now, if you'd like?" Ruby offered, willing to give him this one out before the sisters pummeled him with food.

"Hey, we should make him sign a contract that makes him give me piggyback rides. I can't afford to ride my motorcycle as much as I used to, and he'd make the perfect substitute." Yang said with her hands on her hips. Ruby gawked at her, and before long the sisters were arguing for what they should make Jaune agree to do. While this was happening, Jaune was slowly making his way over to the duo.

As he got into an acceptable distance, Jaune cleared his throat. "The way that you two are talking right now makes me believe that you think I lost? That I should surrender?" Jaune asked sarcastically. Yang and Ruby both stopped arguing the moment Jaune began to speak. They both turned back to him as he began to unfold his arms.

"It seems that you don't understand how I operate. I don't give up, even when the only plan I have is messy!" Jaune declared, and in a flash he let his arms open up completely. Within his grasp was a large bottle of unopened diet soda that was ready to burst from being tossed around throughout the fight.

"What are you gonna do, Vomit Boy? Make us sticky?" Yang teased, and winked for good measure. Jaune only blushed and stuttered for a moment before throwing back a near murderous grin.

"No, I'm going to blow you away…. As well as the sticky part!" Jaune concluded, and in a flash his hand was in his sweatshirt pocket. Jaune had pulled the object out so fast that the sisters hadn't had time to realize how much danger they were in. Jaune tore open the wrapper containing his candy bombs with his teeth while simultaneously unscrewing the cap of his soda bottle.

"White Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Mentos Eruption!" Jaune roared mightily, shoving every single white mint into the soda bottle. Jaune quickly closed the cap and threw it at the girls. Neither could move fast enough to escape a literal soda bomb and were knocked into various piles of tables. Yang even slammed into a pillar, shattering it upon impact.

After several seconds of silence, Jaune opened his eyes to survey the damage of the entire battle.

The entire mess hall was destroyed. It could now appropriately be called a mess hall with how it looked. The walls were covered in food and cracks. Several pillars had been chipped away or destroyed. The tables and chairs were all but obliterated. The floors were covered in a thin layer of different sauces. The people who had gotten themselves involved were on the floor, covered head to toe in food.

Yang tried to stand back up, but the feeling of stickiness kept her down, along with her sister. The sisters looked at each other, nodded, and then looked back to Jaune.

"We surrender." They both declared, not a single shred of negativity in that statement. They both knew that the whole fight was for fun, and nobody looked like they had more fun than Jaune, who upon hearing their official surrender, pumped his fists into the air and hollered like a lunatic.

That is, until the wicked witch arrived.

Glynda growled as she stomped into the cafeteria, riding crop in hand. With a mere flick of her wrist, tables and chairs began to reassemble and go back into place like a puzzle. The fallen pillars were re-erected, holding the ceiling far better than while the fight was happening. Nothing could be done about the food and the mess that the food had caused. She would make the students in front of her clean as punishment.

"Please, do not play with your food." Glynda requested sternly, dangerously close to her breaking point. The students in front of her had the intelligence to show that they were sorry for causing her such trouble, but in reality there was nothing too major that she was going to do. Ozpin wanted them to remain as children for just a little while longer, and she would allow that.

But children still need to clean up their messes.

* * *

**Meanwhile, in an old warehouse.**

"Oh look, she sent the kids again. This is turning out just like the divorce." Roman Torchwick said sarcastically to his two new annoyances. Ever since he had started working for Cinder NOT by choice, he'd slowly grown to hate her more and more. When he found out that his green and silver duo were her main lackeys, he chose to not have positive feelings for them. Even wrapping his arms around them was annoying to him since he just wanted to choke the life out of them.

Emerald made a noise of disgust before she and her partner shook the arms from around their respective shoulders. "Spare us the thought of you procreating." Emerald mildly seethed out, not any happier than Roman at this turn of events.

"That was a joke," Roman said, walking over to a large map. The map had several locations circled, some of which were labeled 'Bad Cops' and 'Even Worse Cops.' "And this might tell me where you two have been all day." Roman subtly asked as he waved around a piece of paper that he swiped from Emerald. Emerald seemed shocked that the stylish crook had actually managed to steal something from her without her noticing. Roman took this opportunity to brag, "Pay attention sweetheart, maybe you'll learn something."

Roman finally took the pause of conversation to look at what was written on the piece of paper. "Where did you get this?" Roman asked, all joking gone from his voice.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Emerald challenged cooly, strutting over to Roman.

Roman wouldn't be intimidated by a fledgling like her, "Yeah I would actually. Now, where have you been all day?" Roman asked once more, holding the paper up to her face.

"Cleaning up your problems. One of them at least." Mercury finally chimed in, pointing an accusing finger at Roman. Roman still did not show weakness to these two. He didn't show weakness to nobody, unless it was an act of course.

"I had that under control."

"Two packed bags and a ticket out of Vale said otherwise." Mercury quipped back.

Finally losing a bit of his cool, Roman held his cane up threateningly, "Listen here you little punk. If it were up to me I'd take you and your little street rat friend here and I'd…" Roman was about to continue, but was cut off when a female's voice overtook the conversation.

"What would you do Roman?" A black haired woman challenged. She stepped onto a supply elevator and allowed herself to be brought down slowly. Roman's breath hitched for a moment, but he didn't let it get to him too much.

Roman let out a nervous chuckle, "I'd uh… not kill them?" Roman said, like a child who hoped he got the answer right, but still wasn't sure.

"Cinder!" Emerald greeted happily, but was ignored by Cinder herself as she strode up to Roman. Her body disguised the amount of power and intimidation that she truly held over most people. Roman was fortunate enough to know his limits, but still didn't even know Cinder's. He was at disadvantage in all aspects.

"I thought I made it clear that you would eliminate the soon-to-be runaway?" Cinder asked, clearly irritated with Roman, as well as her henchmen at the moment. They had gone and did the one thing that she told them not to do, and that was essentially commit a crime.

"I was going to but…" Roman was about to make a hopefully acceptable excuse, but was cut off by Emerald.

"He was going to let him escape out of Vale," Emerald pointed a finger at Roman, "We took it upon ourselves to kill the rat." Emerald gloated. It was obvious to everyone in the room that she was far too happy with herself, but not as many people knew why.

"I think he was more like a cat actually." Mercury mused.

"What, like a puma?" Emerald asked jokingly.

"Yeah, there you go."

"Actually he was a panther, you bastards!" A new voice yelled out in rage. The voice was young, but held the power that was to be respected, and by some extension feared. As the group of criminals looked around to find the voice, Emerald let out a choked sound. Faster than lighting the body that the voice had belonged to had Emerald in a headlock with one arm. His other hand had a long, white spike pointed at her neck.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Emerald choked out painfully. The person's response was to apply more pressure to his choke hold.

"Roy, if you do not let go of my subordinate you will regret it." Cinder threatened lowly. She had made this boy accompany Roman on his most recent heists, but only told him to jump in as a last resort. She also knew that he was one of those righteous White Fang radicals, who believed that anyone who hurt a faunus should pay.

"I don't care! I can take you all on!" The boy challenged back. Emerald at his point was clawing at the arm around her neck, but Roy has used his semblance to cover his arm in a coat of natural armor. Her nails began to crack from the resistance of the armor. Mercury was already in a fighting stance, ready to jump in once Cinder gave him the word. Roman on the other hand desired no such conflict. Especially not around this much dust.

"Listen to her kid. I know for a fact that you can't take Cinder on alone, much less Mercury and I, should she order me to attack." Roman warned, not getting any closer or any further away. Roman may seem like a racist, but he just didn't like incompetent White Fang grunts. Roy on the other hand, is one of Adam's personal soldiers. Sharpened and refined like a true weapon, Roy was ready to defend Adam and all of faunus-kind at a moment's notice.

Roy peered at those around him through his mask. He was actually hoping that the dozens of White Fang members would be ready to support him, but to his surprise they looked away in fear. Roy snorted and pulled his arms away, letting Emerald fall to the ground as she gasped for air. Roman could have sword that he heard Roy mutter something about 'cowards.'

"Now back to the matter at hand," Cinder said, as if the whole ordeal hadn't just happened, "Why wasn't this job done sooner?" Cinder asked Roman.

Roman held up two fingers, "Well two things. One, you assigned Roy to me. You just saw how he reacted to hearing that those two killed the faunus turncoat. I'd rather not be on the receiving end of that." Roman reasoned. Roy looked away with a growl. Roman looked at Roy for a moment before continuing, "Second, do you see how much fucking dust is in here? I've barely had time to myself with the number of heists you've forced upon me." Roman complained childishly.

"Actually, seeing as how recently I've been having more trouble than normal with these robberies. If you would be so kind as to tell me what your masterful plan is, it might make my next string of robberies just a little easier." Roman hoped that Cinder would comply. While it was true that it might make the next few robberies easier, he really just wanted some more information so he could find some sort of escape through her iron grip around him. Figuratively of course.

"Roman, have a little faith. You'll know what you need when you need to know." Cinder replied smoothly, stroking the side of his face. While from an outside view this would be romantic or even sexual. It was all to put fear into Roman, and fear he felt. He hid it well by showing annoyance, something he was known for. He hoped that annoyance was all that Cinder saw in Roman right now.

With those words, Cinder and company left. Although the other female of Cinder's party was still breathing heavily and rubbing her sore throat. She sent one last glare at Roy, but quickly turned her head back as the glare was returned tenfold. It was even more frightening due to the mask that always hid his face. Even though he was clearly younger than all of them, he was powerful.

After they left, Roy looked to Roman. Roy's glare lessened somewhat, but he was still looking at Roman so there was only so much anger that could be restrained, "I may not like you, Roman. But I hate that group far more." Roy commented. Roy turned to walk back into the shadows, and within seconds he was concealed.

Roman sighed and pulled out a cigar. Flicking his zippo lighter and running his thumb on the sparker, Roman was in dire need of a smoke now. Immediately after lighting the expensive cigar, Roman took a deep huff and exhaled. His shoulders visibly loosened up, and his eyes found the floor.

"I feel the same kid. I feel the same."

**Totally just uploaded this chapter and didn't include an authors note. I'll just say that ive been busy with stress, work, college, and my new problem which is one of my college dormmates. Ill answer the reviews in the next chapter, which should be up a lot sooner than the amount of time it took to get this one up.**


End file.
